IRIN - South Sudan

Juba, South Sudan 2012. A photo essay documenting the work of trainee midwives and nurses in the Juba Teaching Hospital and adjoining Juba College of Nursing and Midwifery. South Sudan has one of the highest maternal mortality rate in the world: for every 100,000 births, over 2,000 mothers die and ninety percent of women give birth away from formal medical facilities and without the help of professionally trained assistants.

One of the biggest problems they face, beyond lack of training, equipment and facilities, is a country that has been through decades of civil war, Africa's longest running.