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Dr. Zhang Dingyu (L) talks to China.org.cn staff reporter Corey Cooper (R).

In the emergency room, Zhang and a team of other doctors discovered that the woman's condition was serious. A late pregnancy had caused her already obese belly to swell to extreme proportions, so large that she could not lie flat – she was forced to stand against the operating table as doctors held her abdomen. Although she was partially sedated, her blood pressure had skyrocketed, putting her at high risk for a seizure. Zhang put a breathing tube down her throat and intravenous medication helped to bring her blood pressure down considerably. But the team still worried that the extreme stress would put both the baby and mother at risk. The doctors debated terminating the pregnancy to give the woman a better chance of survival.

Zhang and the other doctors had reason to be wary of the mother's chances for survival. Complications from childbirth are the leading killer of Pakistani women. According to a 2007 study conducted by ICF International and USAID, one in 89 Pakistani women will die of maternal causes. Although three out of five women receive some prenatal care from a health provider, only 25 percent have been educated about pregnancy complications. Common killers include obstetric bleeding (responsible for one-third of all maternal deaths) and postpartum infections, the study said.

Back at the hospital, the on-site obstetrician, who was from Japan, performed an emergency Caesarean section, safely delivering a baby girl. But the newborn had stopped breathing and needed CPR. After a tense few minutes, the infant's breathing resumed. Both mother and daughter survived. The emergency rescue, tense as it was, had become routine work for the MSF team.

"In China, maybe I saw one case of hypertension or hemorrhaging [among pregnant women] in several years, but at the medical camp in Timergarah, every week we had one or two cases," Zhang said.

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