{"id":81696,"date":"2026-02-27T09:59:30","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T08:59:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/?p=81696"},"modified":"2026-02-27T14:52:02","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T13:52:02","slug":"south-african-community-health-worker-delivers-baby-historic-flood-disaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/story\/81696\/south-african-community-health-worker-delivers-baby-historic-flood-disaster\/","title":{"rendered":"South African community health worker delivers baby during historic flood disaster"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Birthing babies can become way more complicated in extreme weather, as can managing everyday healthcare and medical emergencies. But such pressures will only increase as fossil-fuelled disasters intensify. Here\u2019s how one South African mother and community care worker handled childbirth in a Red Level 10 storm without access to health facilities \u2013 and why governments need to invest in climate-resilient infrastructure and make polluters pay for the mounting cost of their climate impacts.<\/em><\/p>\n\n

\"Evidence
Evidence Ramoshaba holds her baby Kutshemba in front of a home in her village destroyed heavy flooding the night her baby was born.
\u00a9 Felix Dlangamandla\/Daily Maverick<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Cut off by floodwaters and without access to a clinic, a South African home-based carer was forced into an extraordinary role when a young woman went into labour during recent floods. In Mbaula village, amid destruction and isolation, an impromptu baby delivery became a symbol of hope and solidarity in a community left on the margins of healthcare.<\/p>\n\n

On Wednesday 14 January, floods caused by a low-pressure system that began in Mozambique, but quickly moved into the neighbouring South African provinces of Mpumalanga and Limpopo, caused immense destruction. Homes were gutted, roads washed away and more than 30 lives<\/a> were reportedly lost. In neighbouring countries, the reported death toll went into the hundreds and nearly a million people were displaced<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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A post shared by Greenpeace International \ud83c\udf0d (@greenpeace)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n