As a new mother, it is terrifying that woman around the world give birth without clean water

When I look at the pictures of me cradling my pregnant tummy and going through my maternity bag, I can’t help but think, "wow, poor six-weeks-ago Amira has no idea what's coming for her."

It’s fair to say my birth experience wasn’t anything near the water birth I had planned. Instead, I endured an agonising 52-hour labour before finally I had to have an emergency C-section in order to meet my baby boy for the first time. It was chaotic, excruciatingly painful and scary. I will never be able to fully describe the relief when they handed him to me.

Five weeks on, I am still processing what happened to me and reflecting on the items I packed in my maternity bag in preparation. It strikes me that those carefully chosen items were afforded to me because I had access to the basic foundations that supported me throughout; clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene.

Amid the intensity and chaos of it all, I felt reassured that the doctors and midwives were able to attend to me and my baby in a clean and hygienic environment.

When the midwives and nurses were busy around me, handling urine samples or performing check-ups, it was always with gloves on or freshly sanitised hands. And when it came to the C-section, I knew the doctors had been able to "scrub in" and were holding sterilised equipment while they worked to get my baby out.

I loved my maternity bag. It was packed with items that sustained me through labour and recovery: the TENS [Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation] that carried me through those first few hours of labour by helping to ease the pain, the nighties my mother brought me from India, lightweight for a hot labour ward and able to unbutton at the front, a small but vital convenience during those first attempts at feeding. And, not least, the water bottle and straw I clutched to stay hydrated throughout my time in hospital.

Labour is thirsty work, and while my husband did his best to keep my spirits up, I was so thankful to be able to sip from my water bottle without worrying about where or how to refill it. In the middle of the night, after the birth – parched and without my call button – I wandered into the corridor in search of water but was sent back to bed while a midwife fetched a clean jug.

It is terrifying to me that globally a woman gives birth every two seconds in a healthcare setting without clean water and good hygiene. In the aftermath of major surgery, I could barely make my way down a corridor; I can’t imagine having to walk miles across difficult terrain to collect water from polluted rivers just to drink or wash. Nor having to pack disinfectant and bleach to clean dirty surfaces or plastic sheeting to cover the bed on which I would give birth – because health care centres don’t always have the means to provide clean bedding to each woman in labour.

As every mother knows, giving birth carries risk wherever you are in the world. I felt that acutely in the hours I spent on the labour ward of the London hospital where I gave birth to my son. But access to clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene are the very basics that every expectant mother should be able to rely on when giving birth.

Clean water saves lives, that’s why I’m supporting WaterAid’s “Time to Deliver” campaign, signing their petition and standing in solidarity with mothers and healthcare workers around the world who are calling on governments to deliver real change for every mother, every birth, and every future. I hope you will too.

To sign WaterAid’s petition click here. This article has been produced as part of The Independent’s Rethinking Global Aid project

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