ALIMA USA, The Alliance for International Medical Action

When 35-year-old Maimuna was 37 weeks pregnant, she went into labor at her home in Monguno, in northeastern Nigeria, where she was living in a camp for internally displaced persons.

This wasn’t her first time giving birth, but this time she experienced complications. By the time her neighbors brought her to the Mother and Child Health center (MCH), she had already lost a lot of blood. Doctors had to perform an emergency cesarean section to save her life, since she had already lost her unborn child. As she was rushed into the operating theater, Maimuna was in urgent need of a blood transfusion.