Home birth inspires Aeisha Anderson to be a midwife - Now Student Nurse of the Year working at becoming registered nurse

While most pre-teens would be shocked at the sight of a woman giving birth, for midwife Aeisha Anderson, that intriguing experience led her to discover her passion for helping and caring for others.

Anderson, who hails from St Mary, told THE STAR that she was just 12 when she assisted her grandmother and their neighbour's mother deliver a baby boy because an ambulance could not get to the mother in time.

"Being from the country, my parents never really exposed me to how a baby really came about. So it was really fascinating to actually see how it happened," said Anderson, who, after graduating from St Mary High School, went on to study midwifery at the Kingston School of Nursing and Midwifery. However, for the last six years, while assisting her patients give birth at the Annotto Bay Hospital, Anderson recognised that she was capable of doing much more for them.

"I realised that I encountered situations that are surgical and medical with my maternity patients that I was not initially trained to do, and, as such, I decided that I wanted to be able to offer better care to my patients in terms of treating all their conditions and not just those that are maternity based," said Anderson. She is now a student at the Brown's Town School of Nursing studying to become a registered nurse.

Last Sunday, Anderson was selected as the 2024/2025 LASCO/NAJ Nursing Student of the Year, which though nerve-wracking, "was a wonderful feeling."

"I am very elated to know that I stepped out of my comfort zone and did public speaking. I have terrible stage fright but I represented my school, hospital and community and am sure they are proud of this accomplishment," said Anderson.

Set to graduate from the Brown's Town school, the aspiring nurse told THE STAR that one of the things she loves most about being a midwife is being able to serve others and seeing the parents' reactions.

"It's a pleasure to see the joy expressed in a different form after the safe delivery of a baby. Some mothers cry uncontrollably, some laugh, scream, ask who the child resemble," Anderson said.

"It's never a dull moment and no one delivery or labour is the same, so it definitely keeps me on my feet," she added. Anderson told the news team that the best part of her job is being able to assist in the recovery of her patients.

"When patients come to the ward very ill and they are with us for a long time, sometimes for the entire pregnancy, and you get to see that 360-turn and eventually those patients become family," Anderson said.

Recalling her most memorable experience as a midwife, Anderson said she prayed over a patient who was in severe pain and suffering from preeclampsia, a serious blood pressure condition that can develop during pregnancy.

"We were worrying about her, we were worrying about the baby and that night I prayed like I never prayed before - not out loud, but in myself. I was saying 'She shall not die but she shall live and declare the word of Lord', and I was just saying the scriptures in my mind and covering her underneath the blood of Jesus," said Anderson. The patient survived and delivered a baby girl, but due to her condition, she had to be transferred to another hospital to receive care. However, when Anderson saw her again she was alive and well.

"When she came back from Victoria Jubilee [Hospital] she was normal and those things kinda amaze me, to see somebody at death's door and then to see them back at their normal self," Anderson said.