Development worker Leila de Bruyne says the first-world healthcare that saved her life is a basic human right that should be afforded to all expectant mothers
Sitting on the floor by the fireplace with Wawerũ, her legs outstretched and crossed at the ankles, we have to keep ourselves from laughing too loudly. It’s 10pm at Flying Kites, a school in rural Kenya, and a handful of orphaned students who don’t have homes to go to are sleeping in the bedroom just behind where we’re sitting.
Wawerũ has taken a long pause in her story. She smoothes the wrinkles on her skirt and rubs her shins, which are covered in thick purple scars – some slashes are so raised they look like slugs warming themselves by the fire. “What do you mean you had to cut the umbilical cord yourself?” I ask, and we’re both laughing again, like two women recounting a crazy night out. Except we’re not. We’re talking about Wawerũ giving birth to her first child alone on a dirt floor in Njabini, a small village in the foothills of Kenya’s Aberdare mountains. And I probably shouldn’t be laughing, but Wawerũ is an incredible storyteller and very funny. “And then I nursed the baby and made chai. You just do what you have to!” she says, leaning back against the wall, and I am in awe.
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