The following episode includes challenging and emotional experiences related to baby loss.

If you feel this might be a difficult listen, please consider choosing another episode.

Strength can be found in many forms, in many places, in steady hands, in clear decisions, in the simple act of showing up. For midwives, resilience isn't an abstract idea, but something

vital, lived and learned in the course of their work.

This week, we hear from a midwife who knows this intimately.

From the raw, complex realities of frontline care in some of the world's most challenging settings,

to her own experience of profound, personal loss.

I'm Giovanna Fletcher and from Happy Mum,

this is Life of a Midwife.

Last week we heard from Anna,

who went on to train as a midwife after working as a nurse

with Doctors Without

Waters or MSF.

In this episode, we hear more of her story, beginning with one of the very first births

she attended nine months into her time in South Sudan, before she had even qualified as a midwife.

Grace had come to us. We'd fought onto her belly. She was labouring and there was definitely

two in there, so we sterilised two lots of kit on the autoclave over a wood-burning stove

to make them sterile.

And the first baby was born.

He was headfirst, came out, cried.

I mean, he was only about a kilogram, but he, you know, showed all, like, on our APGARS was,

you know, a responsive baby.

...