Sierra Leonean Midwife Named TIME Woman of the Year

After a 25-year career with the UK's National Health Service where she witnessed only one maternal death, Isata Dumbuya returned to her birthplace of Kono, Sierra Leone, in 2018. In her first week working at the local government hospital, she watched two young women die from preventable pregnancy complications. Sierra Leone has one of the world's highest maternal mortality rates, though it has seen significant progress, reducing the rate from 1,682 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2000 to 354 in 2023. The leading direct causes of death are obstetric hemorrhage, hypertension, obstructed labor, and sepsis. The Paul E. Farmer Maternal Centre of Excellence, which Dumbuya helped spearhead, opened on February 14, 2026. The 120-bed facility, a partnership between Partners In Health and Sierra Leone's Ministry of Health, includes the nation's first neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and advanced surgical theaters. In its first 24 hours of operation, the MCOE welcomed 27 patients and 13 babies were born. The center is designed to serve as a hub for training the next generation of Sierra Leonean health workers, aiming for sustainable improvements in care. Dumbuya's strategy involves intensively training local nurses and midwives to recognize early warning signs and strengthening emergency response systems. She has also focused on changing a mindset of desensitization to maternal death and building community trust by working with traditional birth attendants to encourage facility-based care. Broader national efforts are underway to bolster midwifery, including the 2023 Nursing and Midwifery Act and a goal to add 3,000 midwives to the workforce by 2030. Digital health innovations like the Janitri fetal heart rate monitor and the CRADLE VSA device for detecting pre-eclampsia and sepsis are also being implemented to improve birth outcomes.