--- description: After 25 years as a midwife in the U.K., Dumbuya returned to her homeland to help establish a state-of-the-art maternity center. title: Midwife Isata Dumbuya Is Working to Make Childbirth Safer in Sierra Leone image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt451827818399642f/69b0485ccaac990293ea4e35/Isata-Dumbuya_Chiara-Herold-PIH.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Feb 26, 2026 # How Midwife Isata Dumbuya Is Working to Make Childbirth Safer in Sierra Leone by [Veronique Greenwood](/author/veronique-greenwood/) ## Veronique Greenwood Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close  Isata Dumbuya Isata DumbuyaChiara Herold—PIH After 25 years as a midwife for the U.K.’s National Health Service, Isata Dumbuya returned to where she was born in Kono, Sierra Leone. The country had endured a civil war and alarming rates of women dying in childbirth, so when Dumbuya heard Partners In Health planned to open a maternity center in Kono, she signed on to become the head of nursing and midwifery. While the nonprofit raised funds for the new center, Dumbuya got started at the existing government hospital. Her first months were heartrending. Though the [maternal mortality rate](https://genderdata.worldbank.org/en/economies/sierra-leone "undefined") had fallen from its 1990s highs, it was still among the worst in the world—more than 40 times as high as what she was used to in the U.K. Dumbuya realized the staff had become de­sensitized in the face of such loss. “There were just so many women dying, when another one dies, it’s almost like ‘Well, what can I do?’” she says. Women were afraid to go to the hospital for help, so by the time a patient arrived, perhaps on the back of a motorbike, her condition could be extremely serious, and health care workers didn’t have sufficient resources or training to save her life. Dumbuya has been working to change that, securing supplies and training staff to identify warning signs and treat them effectively. She’s also built trust with patients and the community through steps like working with traditional birth attendants. “We need to be able to train a cohort of Sierra Leone national staff to that highest level,” she says, “because that’s what’s sustainable.” Finally completed last year, the Paul E. Farmer Maternal Center of Excellence will further those efforts with state-of-the-art facilities and the country’s first [neonatal intensive-­care unit](https://www.pih.org/maternal-center-excellence "undefined"). Opening day was Feb. 14, and Dumbuya couldn’t wait: “We are looking forward to that so much—that first baby!” TIME | Current & Breaking News | National & World Updates ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/women-of-the-year/7377892/isata-dumbuya/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/women-of-the-year/7377892/isata-dumbuya/"},"headline":"Midwife Isata Dumbuya Is Working to Make Childbirth Safer in Sierra Leone","datePublished":"2026-02-26T12:35:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-26T16:49:56.706Z","description":"After 25 years as a midwife in the U.K., Dumbuya returned to her homeland to help establish a state-of-the-art maternity center.","url":"https://time.com/collections/women-of-the-year/7377892/isata-dumbuya/","keywords":["Women of the Year","list","franchise","Magazine","sponsorshipblock"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt451827818399642f/69b0485ccaac990293ea4e35/Isata-Dumbuya_Chiara-Herold-PIH.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Veronique Greenwood","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/veronique-greenwood/"}],"creator":"Veronique Greenwood","articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt451827818399642f/69b0485ccaac990293ea4e35/Isata-Dumbuya_Chiara-Herold-PIH.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/women-of-the-year/","name":"Women of the Year"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/women-of-the-year/7377892/isata-dumbuya/","name":"Midwife Isata Dumbuya Is Working to Make Childbirth Safer in Sierra Leone"}}]}] ```