Heroic Midwife Delivers Babies Amid Rubble of Morocco’s Deadly Earthquake

Maria, a midwife working in a maternal health center in Talat N’Yaagoub, a village just 16 kilometers from the epicenter of the Al Haouz earthquake, owes her survival to her colleagues. "Trapped under the rubble, I thought I was going to die. [...] That night was difficult, but as soon as my colleagues helped me out of the rubble, we all managed to provide assistance and save lives," Maria told the UNFPA website, the United Nations agency in charge of sexual and reproductive health issues. The midwife is one of more than 500 beneficiaries of a training organized by UNFPA over the past two years on emergency procedures to ensure sexual and reproductive health in crisis situations.

Saved by her colleagues, Maria in turn saves lives. In Talat N’Yaagoub, as terrified residents rushed to get out of their destroyed homes, there were a series of powerful aftershocks. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 300,000 people, including more than 1,500 pregnant women, were affected by the September 8 earthquake in Marrakech and its surroundings. Amidst the disaster, Maria used the medicines she had managed to recover from the rubble of the health center to help two pregnant women give birth safely. One of them gave birth to healthy twins. The midwife also provided care to other pregnant women in the affected area.