Maternity training in low & middle income settings with Rebecca Marcussen-Lewis

In this session we speak with with Rebecca Marcussen-Lewis on maternity training in Low- and Middle-income countries and developing contexts. Rebecca is a trained Midwife and graduate of the MSc in extreme medicine and has recently been working on the ships with SOS Méditerranée. SOS MEDITERRANEE is a humanitarian organisation that advocates on behalf of all people in distress at sea, without partiality as concerns their nationality, country of origin, social belonging, religious belief, political or ethnic affiliation. Since it first started operating at sea in 2014, SOS MEDITERRANEE has been patrolling the central Mediterranean in international waters between Italy and Libya where most boats in distress occur. The rescues take place outside Libyan territorial waters (known as the 12-mile zone). Rebecca talks through what she has learnt when she has been involved with both training and practising midwifery on these ships.

Rebecca is a clinical midwife and is currently working in Search and Rescue in the Central Mediterranean as team leader of a diverse multi-organisational medical team.

Rebecca trained as a midwife specifically to work in the humanitarian field having grown up in a medical family hearing of memories from Biafra and Zambia. Following completion of her initial clinical training, she began working in the field with Yazidi Emergency Support whilst undertaking the WEM Post Graduate Diploma with the University of Exeter.

She is continuing to try and encourage other midwives and birth professionals into the humanitarian setting and to build knowledge about women’s health to dispel the common fear and apprehension in other clinicians around these topics. Outside of her humanitarian work, she spends as much time as possible with her two very fluffy and energetic dogs.