ltungo and Biliri, two major towns in Gombe State recently experienced some of the types of incidents that maternal and newborn health activists decry in Nigeria.
 
The first was at Kaltungo General Hospital mid-June, and Madam Rose, who witnessed the pathetic incident put it this way: “All she needed to survive was a few pints of blood; the doctor wanted blood to save her life, but there was no blood available in the hospital’s blood bank. So she was left on the delivery couch just as helpless as the doctor who wanted to help but couldn’t.”