A mother's gift

Resting in an Edinburgh hospital after the birth of her first son, Sarah Brown met a midwife involved with a charity helping new mothers in Malawi. The Prime Minister's wife now backs this campaign, and wrote a heartfelt foreword to the MUMs Recipe Book 2. Read it exclusively here in SW.

SARAH Brown, the wife of the Prime Minister, has little in common with the patients at Bwaila maternity hospital in Malawi. Women in the dilapidated African hospital give birth without any pain relief, on beds covered in plastic sheets. Premature infants have little chance of survival, and every week one woman dies in childbirth there.

By contrast, Mrs Brown had the very best care, on clean white sheets, for the delivery of her children at the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh. But as a mother, Mrs Brown knows all too well the pain of losing a child.

In 2002, the Browns lost their first child, Jennifer Jane, after just ten "precious" days together as a family. It is an experience that the Prime Minister said changed him more than any other.

Today the memory is still raw and Mrs Brown seldom talks about her loss in public. However, when she heard - while still recovering from the birth of her second child - about the conditions for women going through childbirth in Malawi it made her think again about the suffering experienced by anyone who loses a child. She decided to help mothers in a similar position by writing a foreword to a new recipe book that raises funds for Bwaila Hospital.

"I have my own experience of losing my first child, who was born prematurely, and I understand all too well what that means as a mother," she writes. "I certainly wish my experience on no-one else and hope ardently that we can all find ways to prevent future losses for other expectant mothers."

She writes that she was at her most vulnerable when she first heard about Bwaila Hospital from an Edinburgh midwife, Linda McDonald.

"I first heard about Bwaila Maternity Hospital in Malawi while I was myself recovering after the birth of my eldest son in Edinburgh.

"Linda McDonald was one of the midwives patiently teaching me how to feed my son, in the middle of the night, as I sat in my lovely, clean bed in the wonderful new Simpsons maternity unit at the Royal Infirmary Hospital, not long opened in 2003.

"Linda spoke of the suffering of all too many pregnant mothers encountering complications in Malawi, and of her hope of saving the lives of babies and mothers in high-risk pregnancies there."

McDonald had already raised £100,000 for Bwaila with a recipe book compiled by Scottish mothers in 2005, MUMs Recipes - MUMs stands for "Malawi Underprivileged Mothers".

However, more still needs to be done for Bwaila Hospital and its patients. When The Scotsman visited the hospital in August, we saw mothers forced to sleep on mattresses on the floor because of a lack of beds. There were only two gynaecologists, compared with four in 2005, to attend up to 40 births every day.

Brown was immediately interested in helping the mothers of Malawi by writing a foreword for MUMs Recipes 2.

"The funds raised go to support a maternity hospital near Lilongwe, with which the Simpson had twinned itself as part of Scotland's growing relationship with Malawi and its people," she writes.

"At that time Bwaila Hospital was called Bottom Hospital (the one that was absolutely not the Top Hospital, you see) and was coping with 12,000 deliveries per year with only two qualified obstetricians on hand. Its inadequate facilities meant insufficient staffing, poor infection control and little access to necessary antiretrovirals and other drugs. A mother died every six days. Stillbirths and neonatal deaths were heartbreakingly high. Small wonder it was referred to as being 'born into a hospital from hell'."

Things are slowly improving at Bwaila. The Tom Hunter Foundation and money raised by the Scottish public is building and equipping a new £750,000 hospital, though staffing is still a problem.

The money raised from the sale of MUMs Recipes 2 is going towards a Wellness Centre in Lilongwe, Malawi's capital, which will provide an educational and caring environment for overburdened nurses and health workers, encouraging them to remain in Malawi's health sector rather than seek work in another industry or abroad.

"The fabulous MUMs recipes are helping to improve nurses' working conditions, to keep midwives working in Malawi and to encourage more midwives and doctors to work in Bwaila Hospital," Brown writes. "Infection control will improve, and so will pregnancy outcomes change for the better. The donations made via the MUMs recipe book will undoubtedly contribute to keeping Bwaila Hospital sustainable for the long term."

Linda McDonald recalls chatting to the nervous young mum in a dressing gown with her baby.

Despite her position as the wife of the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, and her obvious exhaustion, Brown was immediately interested in the plight of other mothers.

"When you have just had a baby you are very vulnerable ... no matter who you are, it links you as mothers," says McDonald.

Since her marriage, former PR woman Sarah Brown has been involved in the Jennifer Jane Brown Research Trust looking into neonatal deaths, and supports research into cystic fybrosis - the Browns' younger son, James Fraser, has been diagnosed with the condition. She is also president of the UK children's charity PiggyBankKids, which supports opportunities for vulnerable babies, children and young people.

"She is just a mummy who wants the best for her children, and he [Gordon Brown] is just a daddy who is very warm and affectionate with them," says McDonald.

Jack McConnell, the former first minister, visited Bwaila Hospital in 2005 and was so shocked by the conditions he pledged to make turning the hospital around his number one priority.

"Linda McDonald's amazing efforts to support the people of Malawi are mirrored across Scotland, from school links to building much needed modern hospitals," McConnell said.

"By buying this book, you too are now part of the national effort by the people of Scotland to contribute to the development of Malawi. You are helping to change and save lives."

• To order MUMs Recipes Two (£5 per book, plus £2.50 P&P for the first book and £1 each thereafter), visit: www.smartdesignandprint.com or make cheques payable to Mums Recipes and send to: Smart Design & Print, Unit 11. West Gorgie Park, Hutchison Road, Edinburgh EH14 1UT. For more details, log on to: www.mumsrecipes.org