TWO YEARS ago on Valentine’s Day, Temie Giwa-Tubosun gave birth to her son, Eniafe, in Minnesota, where her parents live in the U.S. Fittingly, Eniafe—a popular name among the Yoruba people of southwestern Nigeria—translates as “the one we love.”
BOX CLEVER: A LifeBank employee makes a delivery to a hospital in Lagos, Nigeria. Only 43 percent of the 185,000 pints of blood required each year in the city are collected; LifeBank aims to move 9,000 pints in 2017.
J. PERDIGÓ & C. ALDEHUELA FOR NEWSWEEK; ADEOLA OLAGUNJU FOR NEWSWEEK
The birth was complicated: Eniafe came seven weeks early and weighed just 2 pounds at birth. Both mother and child required intensive care. “I realized how easy it would have been to die in Nigeria,” says Giwa-Tubosun, 30. The country has a high maternal mortality rate—814 deaths per 100,000 live births. The leading cause of those deaths is postpartum hemorrhage—the loss of too much blood within 24 hours after a woman has given birth.