I’m Not Qualified For This

Psst. I have a confession to make:

I’m not a maternal health expert.

I’m not a nurse, midwife, or in the health care field at all. When I wrote MAMA: True Stories Of Maternal Health in Malawi, I hadn’t even graduated into motherhood yet. Aside from the desire to have a child of my own someday (Woohoo, I’ve since achieved that goal!), I was twenty-one years old with no maternal experience, and no health credentials.

So what makes me qualified to write a book about maternal health?

That’s one of my favourite questions to answer. I might not be an OBGYN, but I am a trained writer with an empathetic heart. MAMA is just as much a book about maternal health as it is a book about compassion, understanding, and empathy. The pages within contain little pieces of people that we may have never considered before – and in seeing their stories, we develop a new perspective towards the strangers in our own cities.

The goal of MAMA is not to turn you into an exclusive maternal and newborn health advocate (I do consider it a success if you DO become one, though!). My intentions with MAMA and all my future books are to bring you to the doorstep of people who experience life in a completely different way. When we connect ourselves to more cultures, causes, and contacts, we develop a deeper view of the world around us. Subsequently, our interactions with others become more compassionate, and one by one, our experiences with life become a whole lot brighter.

MAMA is just as much a book about maternal health as it is a book about compassion, understanding, and empathy.

I may not be a maternal health expert, but it doesn’t take an expert to know that the true stories within this book are meaningful and impactful.* When you read through the pages, take a moment to look on all the people you know with an extra tender heart.

*Note: MAMA: True Stories of Maternal Health in Malawi has been read and approved by authorities in maternal health, and experts in the Malawian culture. I’ve done extensive research to make sure that every statement within MAMA is factually correct, and can be relied on!