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Why giving birth in the Central African Republic is a risky affair

Ines Bandoua, a delivery assistant, nourishes a patient through intravenous in the labour ward of the MSF-supported Maternity Community Hospital Centre in Bangui, Central African Republic, on 25 October 2022. [Courtesy]

Divine has been labouring in pain for hours, her right hand clutching the bedpost, her left hand crumpling her orange and green loincloth. Her baby is overdue and she is exhausted.

In the labour ward of Bangui's community hospital, the nurse has just administered oxytocin, a hormone to speed up the frequency and intensity of her contractions.

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