The Washington Post
INFANT MORTALITY
The stillborn body of Saio Marah's baby lies in the labor room awaiting burial on Sept. 16, 2008, in Kabala, Sierra Leone, the morning after her mother had an emergency C-section. The baby girl was named only with the father's surname and called Baby Barrie. Saio later thanked God they came to this hospital because if she had stayed in village she believes they both would be dead. "I will not cry," she said. But later a single tear rolled from her eye. She did not want to see her baby, it would hurt too much. The baby was alive with a distressed heartbeat but in the hours it took to gather operating room staff that had already gone home after their shift, the baby had passed away. She was buried by the hospital watchman Pasheku Kamara in a shallow unmarked grave in a field of tall grass behind the hospital. Sierra Leone is plagued by an extremely high rate of infant and maternal mortality rates.
