An Hour with Nabiha al-Wer

Miss Nabiha al-Wer, head nurse of the government women's maternity hospital in Amman, has a wide reputation in the field of women's medicine in Jordan. She recently visited the maternity hospitals of England and Scotland on a mission for the British Red Cross, and came back to us with all the delightful and charming things she saw there. I present here, for the readers of our "Voice," a talk about some of these observations.

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It was a warm morning of the breath of spring, the morning I took a car from Jabal al-Hussein in Amman to the women's maternity hospital, to visit it and to talk with Miss Nabiha al-Wer, its head nurse. Her radiant smile of welcome as she received me, and the hospital's quiet atmosphere, invited me in. There was nothing for it but to make the rounds and talk with the kindly nurses who had done the duty of hospitality to perfection — with Miss Mariam al-Wer at their head — when I had come to them as a guest and given birth to my child there. And in the small, friendly office I took my seat opposite Miss Nabiha and asked her, as I opened my notebook:

Q — You have made many women eager to know what new steps are being taken in England in the world of women's medicine. What was the occasion of so delightful a journey?

A — I traveled to England and Scotland on a mission from the British Red Cross Society, the "Florence Nightingale."

Q — And how long did the journey take?

A — I left Jordan in May 1950 and returned in June 1951. I spent eight months in London, three in Scotland, two weeks in Stockholm, ten days in Geneva, and two days in Paris — and the first place I visited and saw in the French capital was a maternity hospital!

Q — How does a girl progress in her studies there until she obtains the midwifery diploma?

A — First and before everything, the nurse is expected to be highly educated. A girl with no previous training can obtain the midwifery diploma a year and a half after beginning her instruction, while the trained nurse obtains it after no more than a year.

Q — How did you find the English nurse?

A — The English nurse is an ideal nurse; she carries her profession high aloft on two skillful hands that neither tire nor falter. She works with diligence, precision, and speed, as though she were sitting an examination on which her success depended, or as though her work were pierced at every moment by the eyes of monitors and supervisors and she feared punishment! This faithfulness in work adds to the force of her personality, which is adorned by an excellent culture that raises her standing and the nobility of her profession. What struck me most in her loftiness of character was her vast remove from any interest in tittle-tattle, or from chatting with her fellow nurses and lingering with them in the corridors during working hours; you see her always going and coming, moving from place to place like a busy, quiet bee.

Q — How does the story of a mother's pregnancy begin there, and how does it end?

A — Mother and child there have a little throne of glory on which they sit enthroned. From the time the expectant mother enters her second month, she places herself under the supervision of the doctor, who follows the months of pregnancy with his complete care. During the months of waiting she reads books on child care and is given special lessons on everything connected with childbirth and its stages, so that she comes to her delivery with the confidence of one who knows, without fear or dread. After the birth she holds in her arms a fresh, strong baby, and she herself lies among the pillows like a flower in bloom. Nor does the care of her stop at this point: the doctor continues his task, giving her tonics and vitamins, and she passes her days in the hospital in complete rest, her husband visiting her for an hour every evening and her family once a week. Hospital rules have changed somewhat with regard to keeping the baby away from its mother so that she may have her share of rest, for the supervisors have come to hold that the baby's staying with its mother in one room draws him closer to her and gives her a quiet time to become acquainted with him and reach an understanding with him — and so the story ends with the most beautiful and happiest of endings.

Q — I saw just now in your eyes the sparkle of admiration for some scene you remembered! What memory, I wonder, crossed your mind?

A — I am in fact following with my eye a clear picture of a rainy day weeping snow! I see a nurse hurrying, carrying her bag, walking briskly to a house whose people are preparing to welcome a happy event. I see another, summoned to a distant place, riding a bicycle with her bag behind her; she passes a colleague of hers, bound for a place farther still, driving a fast car in which she carries all the necessary instruments. And I can see a third, on the soil of Scotland — a "District nurse," as she is called — who takes a boat if she finds the water cutting off her road; she may ride horseback from place to place, or go up in an airplane and fly from one small island to another.

On hearing this I cried out in admiration: "How splendid! How wonderful!"

And as I was closing my pages, there arrived at the hospital a beautiful lady wearing attractive Indian dress, whom Mrs. Nabiha presented to me with the words: "This is Madame Idwani. She had been intending to travel to London to have her baby there, but she changed her mind after visiting our modest hospital and being taken with it!.."

A short while later, Dame Katherine Watt, head of the London maternity hospitals, came to visit and inspect the hospital — a most gracious lady, with majesty and dignity walking in her train — accompanied by Miss Elizabeth Hilborn, member of the Technical Cooperation Service of the United States in Jordan; and the hospital's doctor, Dr. Ghalib Qusous, walked with her, welcoming and explaining. And I went home after a while, racing the car's wheels back to my nursing infant, wondering what it would have been like if the first light he ever saw had been in England!..