This online lecture provides an example from the frontline. Zanzibar’s tertiary hospital, Mnazi Mmoja Hospital, might be seen as a quite typical example of overburdened, urban maternity units in low and middle income countries; they primarily serve women of lower socioeconomic status who live below the global poverty level, and each birth attendant is typically expected to attend to at least three to six labouring women simultaneously. 

From this reality, Natasha Housseine (MD, PhD) conveys the voices of birth attendants and labouring women. The presentation is followed by a panel discussion on how to better take account of such contexts when formulating associated problems and solutions within the global health community.

The lecture is a recording from the a symposium on “Maternal health: promoting human rights in the labour room”, which was held by Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute and Athena Institute, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam on 4 June 2021.