During the summer after my first year of medical school, I had the opportunity to visit one of Bangladesh's most sophisticated children's hospitals. I spoke with one of the pediatricians there and asked him why the hospital did not have a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). He replied, "It is too expensive to save the lives of sick newborns. Our hospital can't afford the fancy technology that you have in the US."

Maternova obstetric kits are the graduation gift for newly minted graduates trained by Midwives for Haiti. Nadene Brunk, director of Midwives for Haiti reports that the newly trained skilled birth attendants are particularly excited about the colour scale anemia detection kit--allowing them a ready way to determine that a woman is anemic. In addition, the solar powered headlamps and rotary mobile phone chargers are so appreciated by the midwives because they not only provide light and power for clinical care but because they help protect the midwives themselves. As midwives work in remote rural areas or in refugee camps, having a link to safety via mobile phone, and having a light offers physical safety.