Charity MCAI delivers aid to mothers and babies in Ukraine

David Southall, a 74-year-old consultant obstetrician and professor of paediatrics, was one of three people who made the two-week round trip in November driving vans loaded with life-saving kit from Scotland to the Polish-Ukraine border.

He is now planning a second - solo - trip in early January with additional supplies following appeals from a dozen more Ukrainian maternity hospitals.

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Prof Southall, who lives in the village of Laide in the Scottish Highlands, founded MCAI in 1995 following humanitarian work with Unicef in Bosnia.

He said the situation in Ukraine is the worst he has seen in over 25 years of aid missions, including to Bosnia, Sri Lanka, Kosovo and Afghanistan.

He said: "There's a loss of humanity everywhere. There's no rules. The Russians have the most immense power, and numbers, and they're committing a war crime every minute. And what's happening? Nothing. They're not being stopped.

"And they're not being stopped because of the threat of nuclear war. That's the difference. There's this threat in the background.

"I think that threat should be ignored - you can't just leave Ukraine to be destroyed like what happened to the Jews in the Second World War."

Professor David Southall, who founded MCAI in 1995 (Image: MCAI)

For months after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February, MCAI lobbied the United Nations unsuccessfully to put international peacekeepers on the ground to protect civilians.

"Everybody was focused on weapons and the need for Ukraine to defend itself," said Prof Southall.

"That's essential, but it's not enough to protect the civilian population."

By summer, Prof Southall and MCAI trustee Dr Rhona MacDonald shifted their focus from advocacy to the question of how to get maternal and neonatal aid supplies direct to women and babies in Ukraine.

They struck up a relationship with three Ukrainian consultants: obstetrician - Professor Irina Mogilevkina and Neonatologists Professor Dmytro Dobranskyy and Professor Tetiana Znamenska - who helped to identify what kit was needed and 37 hospitals which could take the supplies.

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As months of planning continued, attacks on electricity and water supplies made it increasingly difficult to provide maternity care.

The aid supplies were expanded to include small portable generator/invertors which could be used to charge phones, scanners and oxygen monitors without damaging medical equipment.

Based on MCAI's previous work with mothers in Liberia, handheld obstetric probes were also included which can be used to help mothers monitor their baby's heart during birth for signs of foetal distress.

This approach can help prevent birth asphyxia - where babies are left with severe learning disabilities as a result of oxygen deprivation during labour.

"We've spent the past five years in Liberia developing a system of detecting birth asphyxia early enough to do something about it, because of the lack of midwives and the general state of healthcare there.

"It involves training mothers to monitor their babies themselves during labour.

"Not all the time, but at the end of each uterine contraction which is when you notice if something is going on.

"And they pick it up - that's what's so amazing.

"Then we hand that over to the obstetricians to deal with it, which sometimes means C-section and sometimes vacuum delivery to get the baby out quickly."

Before the war, around 30-40% of babies in Ukraine were delivered by Caesarean, but training in vacuum deliveries - where babies are 'pulled out' using a suction device - has become more urgent amid attacks on electrical infrastructure.

Prof Southall said: "If you have problems with staff, if you have equipment you can't use because of electricity outages, if you don't have a warm area to operate in, if it's freezing cold, doing a Caesarean section becomes a nightmare for the staff and the mother."

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November's supplies also included drugs to prevent post-partum haemorrhage - a major killer - and 300 wraps which mothers can use to carry infants in kangaroo-style pouches against their skin, helping to keep the babies warm.

Funding and equipment for the first shipment - which cost around £150,000 - came from a combination of donors, including International Rotary, the Australia-based DAK Foundation, MCAI, and Glasgow-based courier, Pack & Send, which provided a second van to transport the equipment.

Prof Southall used his own vehicle - a converted motorhome - to transport some of the supplies, with Jonny Miller - managing director of the Clackmannanshire Citizens Advice Bureau - volunteering to drive the second van.

They were also accompanied by Dr John Philip, of Rotary International.

Help was also provided by the Ministry of Health of Ukraine and the Consulate of Ukraine in Edinburgh.

The gruelling journey took them through France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, and Poland until they reached an agreed handover point on the border with Ukraine where they were met by three Ukrainian women tasked with distributing the goods.

Despite the challenges, Prof Southall said the "worst part was driving on the autobahn".

The retired NHS consultant is now organising the second consignment, which has been part funded by a £60,000 donation from an MCAI Trustee.

A JustGiving page has also been set up.

"The situation in Ukraine is not any better and I think it could get much worse," he said.

"That's why we're in a hurry to get the next consignment out there."