Today on International Women’s Day (8th March) we celebrate the work done by village birth attendants in Mali. Birth attendants are highly respected members of the community, who can also play a key role in improving nutrition and women and children’s health. There’s high maternal mortality on the Dogon Plateau, with many women dying from preventable causes, such as anaemia, poor hygiene, birth complications away from health centres or untreated malaria when they give birth.