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t m c » p u l s e | s e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 7 28 A nne Alaniz spent most of her childhood in Malawi watching her father care for ailing men, women and children. Those formative years drove Alaniz, now a gynecologic oncologist at Houston Methodist Hospital, to build an outpatient medical center and other facilities in the Salima District of Malawi. In the rural village where she grew up, her father, Peter Maseko, worked as a clinical officer at one of the district hospitals, often with women delivering babies. "I would always be sad when I saw people crying because somebody died," said Alaniz, 41. "Every time I would hear the voice of somebody wailing, it would always be rough. I would think about that all night long. What could have happened? What went wrong?" While most maternal deaths are considered preventable, maternal mor- tality and morbidity remain prominent health concerns in Malawi due to a lack of access to birth control, a poor health care system and a critical shortage of health care professionals in over- crowded facilities. A study on maternal mortality trends by the World Bank, UNICEF and other organizations found that, in 2015, 634 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in Malawi were a direct result of hemorrhage, infection, unsafe abortion, pre-eclampsia or eclampsia and obstructed labor. The prevalence of malaria, anemia, HIV/ AIDS and tuberculosis also contributed to the high rate of maternal deaths. When Alaniz was young, women from rural villages would walk great distances with their children to get medical care. Some would walk 30 miles, only to wait in a line with 300 or 400 sick patients in front of the hospi- tal. There was no 911 service; there were no ambulances to transport the sick. Families grateful for her father's care would bring him chickens, eggs and goats as tokens of their profound appreciation for healing their loved ones. But not every patient survived. "I remember … being there and my dad was wrapping dead babies and putting them on the moms' backs, who were walking home on foot," Alaniz said. "I always thought that giving birth was a dangerous thing." As the oldest child of seven, Alaniz became aware of the life-threatening risk her mother, Emma, went through each time she went into labor. Each time, Alaniz was convinced her mother was going to die. Like most of the eldest girls in Malawi, Alaniz's mother trained her to take over household responsibilities at a young age. At 10, Alaniz learned to cook, clean, take care of a baby and go to the market for supplies. She had to be prepared to take over as the matri- arch of the family if her mother didn't survive childbirth. "I would always know when she was in labor because she would call me and start preparing me," Alaniz said. "Shortly after that, she would leave and go to the hospital." Alaniz remembers returning home from boarding school one day when she was 15. As she got off the bus, she saw her mother walking towards her with a protruding belly: She was preg- nant again, much to Alaniz's dismay and disbelief. Mission to Serve in Malawi Anne Alaniz, D.O., is building medical facilities in her homeland B y S h a n l e y C h i e n Malawi, Africa Malawi is bordered to the north by Tanzania, to the east and south by Mozambique and to the west by Zambia. Anne Alaniz, D.O., founded the Pothawira Foundation with her father, Peter Maseko, to meet the needs of the Salima District of Malawi. Credit: Global Health Innovations