Swiss midwife responds to call for aid from Gaza

Swiss midwife Tamara Bonc recently spent five weeks in the Red Cross Field Hospital in Gaza. How did she experience the job of delivering babies in a warzone? At the Red Cross Field Hospital in Rafah, southern Gaza, some things are just normal, says Tamara Bonc. The evening view over the Mediterranean, for example. The clinic, where the Swiss midwife worked for five weeks in October and November as part of a Red Cross mission, is built on the coast, and when the light fades on the water, sunsets are spectacular. “You think, OK, well at least some things can’t be changed,” Bonc tells SWI swissinfo.ch in grey, pre-Christmas Zurich. Other marks of normality at the 60-bed hospital: the pragmatic daily interactions with women coming in for check-ups; the range of medical facilities available, despite the temporary nature of the place; the joy of childbirth; the chats with colleagues; the scrolling through newsfeeds; the anticipation of US election results. But the war-torn reality of ...