To mark International women’s day, the pm: EXPRESS crew from Multi TV caught up with an ordinary woman, doing incredible things in her little hideout in Dansoman, a suburb of Accra.

At age ninety-five, one will expect one to retire from any form of active work and enjoy his or her last days as a grand or greatgrand parent. But Madam Mary Opoku Agyeman is still in active service as a private midwife at her clinic, ‘Nyame Adom’ Maternity home at Dansoman.

At her age, she still walks, with fairly good eye sight and hearing. She is a native of Kyebi in the Eastern region; born in 1918 to Thomas Yaw Kani, a tailor and Jane Kyerewaa, a traditional midwife.

She was inspired to go into midwifery by her mother, popularly called ‘Awoni’ who was a traditional midwife. Mary and all her nine siblings were single-handedly delivered at home by their mother. "When my mother was preparing to cook her breakfast, she started feeling the pain, so she left the utensils and went to her room, prepared her bed and delivered me there", she recalls how she was born. 

Her main aim for enrolling for training as a midwife for three years was to introduce something more scientific into the profession and help her mother.  

After her education at Krobo Girls School, she was trained at the Aburi Teacher Training College, after which she taught as a teacher at Abetifi Presbyterian Primary School for two years.

She later enrolled to be trained as a professional midwife for three years at the Korle-Bu Midwifery College. She adds that, during her days of training, a trainee midwife is sent to Chorkor in the heart of Accra, for six months to deliver fifty cases on her own. She ventured into private practice after leaving Korle-Bu and throughout a professional period of practice as a private midwife, for sixty-four years, she worked at Kwaben, New Tafo, and Kyebi in the Eastern region, before moving her clinic to Madina and currently at Dansoman, both in Accra

Madam Opoku Agyeman is convinced that private midwives are more professional and careful than government workers because "if a mother or baby dies, no one will come to you". Over the years, many   different batches of medical students from Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital have visited her clinic for practical training and assessment.

As a staunch Presbyterian, she has received many citations from the church for her meritorious services as a preacher and a member of the Women’s Fellowship. She says prayer is an integral part of her clinic days on Mondays and Thursdays, before work begins and before she actually delivers any baby.

She has delivered thousands of babies, many of whom are prominent members of society today, including renowned lawyer, Nana Asante Bediatuo.

She is a mother of four, one of whom is a nurse midwife, a Grandmother of eight and a Great Grandmother of five.