This is  the maternity record for one of the women I did a C-section for recently. Once again, I was shocked. In case you aren't familiar with the obstetric terminology, let me interpret:

Gravida (the number of times she has been pregnant): 15

Para (the number of times she has delivered): 14

Vivant (the number of children she has alive now): 4

D (number of her children who are deceased): 10

I did a C-section to remove her 15th child, a perfectly formed yet dead little baby boy. Most likely her uterus was too tired to push out another baby and she had started labor days before coming to the hospital. She told me that ten of her children died before they could walk. She didn't know why they died. They don't have a hospital near her village. Maternal and child mortality...not just a statistic but a personal tragedy for this woman and many more here in Niger.