Jill Sheffield: nurturing safe motherhood

摘要

One day when Jill Sheffield was working as a volunteer for a family planning clinic at the Pumwani Maternity Hospital in Kenya, a woman walked into the clinic carrying a newborn baby on her front, and an older baby on her back. She had had 11 pregnancies, had six living children, and was just 27 years old. It was the mid-1960s and Kenya was one of only two African countries that had a national family planning programme, but to get contraceptives a woman had to have her husband's signature. This woman had not sought her husband's permission. Sheffield still remembers her response to this woman's plight: "I was the same age and had no children; I thought holy smoke, stuff the rules. I made sure she got contraceptives, and thought: I have to change this. From that day on I wanted to make sure that women everywhere had as much choice as they could because if you can't plan your fertility, you can't plan your life."#