One of the many beautiful moments that unfolded during our January 2024 trip to Uganda was the arrival of Hope!

On May 29, 2019 the first baby was born at the Centre - baby Hope. In full truth, Hope would never have lived had she not been at the Hope Centre. The staff has tried, in vain, to find her ever since. Then today, baby Hope and her mother appeared for a visit! It was the first time the staff has seen her since her birth.

This trip just so happened to include Rebecca and Grace, the two who helped deliver Hope in 2019. This was also Grace’s first trip back to Uganda since then.

I asked Rebecca and Grace to tell me the story of her birth:

This was mom’s 8th and final child. She started into labor the day before and heard a boda boda announcer (guy on a motorcycle with a megaphone) proclaiming that the Birthing Centre would open in the next few days.

When mom was in active labor, she had a boda boda driver take her from across town to the Centre. Sweet little 20-year-old Grace was cataloging inventory in the antenatal room when mom walked in and dropped to her knees. Grace said, “Houston (Rebecca), we have a problem!” Shortly after, Hope was born blue and lifeless. Rebecca quickly put her on mom’s chest and started stimulating her.

At this point, all of the equipment was still being unboxed and assembled and Rebecca said, “Grace, go find the oxygen concentrator, it’s in a box! Find it and set it up!”

All the while, Rebecca continued to suction, stimulate, and provide compressions to Hope. Rodah (the midwife) and Rebecca took turns providing mouth-to-mouth breaths to the baby. Rodah took care of the mother while Rebecca kept urgently stimulating the baby, but only getting gurgles.

Rebecca wasn’t sure if she said it out loud, but Grace confirmed she did, that she kept praying, “Not this one, God. Please not this one. Not our first! HELP!”

The mother was convinced that her baby was dead and wondered, “Why does she keep working on a dead baby?” (Resuscitation events are aggressive and can be traumatic to watch)

32 minutes later…a full fledged cry!

The team that cared for her has often wondered just how many disabilities she has…surely she has mental or physical disabilities after being deprived of oxygen for so long?! Maybe that is why they hadn’t seen her in all these years?

Then today, a twirling, hugging little darling appeared for a visit! And it “just so happened” that her entire care team was here to love on her!