Joyful Motherhood was founded in 2007 by Joanne Jorissen Chiwaula, an American nurse-midwife, who came to Malawi in 2005 to
volunteer at Bwaila (then Bottom) Hospital in the capital Lilongwe. The absence of post-partum home-based care in Malawi to counteract high maternal and infant mortality rates deeply distressed her and prompted her to found Joyful Motherhood together with Beatrice Namaleu, a Malawian nurse-midwife. Joyful Motherhood is unique in offering high-quality home-based nursing care in Malawi, despite the WHO’s strong recommendation to implement this service in developing countries. Joyful Motherhood has two programs: a Baby Care Program for high-risk babies (e.g. orphans, multiples, prematurely born babies, babies with disabilities) and a Mother Care Program (e.g. women with severe birth-related injuries, eclampsia, severe anaemia, postpartum depression, age < 15 years). Since the start of those two programs, Joyful Motherhood has cared for more than 800 babies and close to 300 mothers.
