Woven from Nature

Living around a wetland certainly has its benefits! In Fuvahmulah, Maldives, Aminath lives close to the vast protected wetland area. Once a month she goes to the wetland to harvest taros from her allocated field. Occasionally she also goes to take a dip in the fresh water lake surrounding the wetland. She is aware that the wetland area help with drainage issues as her island is prone to flooding. Rarely does she wander into the huge wetland areas yet the protected wetland area takes up much of the available terrestrial areas of her island.
She is aware of the ecological significance of the wetland, its aesthetic beauty and the specific source of food it provides. Even though her interaction of the wetland stops there, she often wondered about the services the wetlands provide and wetland associated flora and fauna and how her community can make use of the abundant reeds and screw pines growing wildly in the marshland and wetland.
When the opportunity came through the European Union funded Climate Change Adaptation Project (CCAP) of the Ministry of Environment and Energy, for a handicraft training using wetland associated resources, she participated, as this would pave a way for home or community based incoming generating opportunity for her.
Aminath is now a beneficiary of the livelihood support program for wetland management in Fuvahmulah which aims to empower the local community economically by training them in the traditional Maldivian craft of Thun'du Kunaa weaving (using reed) and Pandanus weaving.
The protected wetland area of Fuvahmulah has abundant reed (known locally as Hau) and wild screw pines (known locally as kashikeyo) growing around it. The participants of the livelihood support program are learning how these reed and screw pines can become a source of livelihood.
The leaves and stems are harvested from the wild and participants would be taught how to splice and dry these leaves and weaving to make mats, bags, pouches, storage boxes and other crafts.

Local Community: Key to Conservation
Protected areas are the primary form of intervention applied to achieve biodiversity conservation in response to anthropogenic threat today. And it is nearly impossible to protect natural resources without community participation. It is generally accepted that community involvement in ecosystem management is a key to success (Mendis-Millard and Reed, 2007).
European Union (EU) funded, Climate Change Adaptation Project (CCAP) of the Ministry of Environment and Energy, managed by the World Bank, is establishing a community-based wetland mechanism for the protected wetland areas of Bandaara Kilhi and Dhadimagi Kilhi of Fuvahmulah. As part of this management mechanism, livelihood improvement and income generating initiatives are incorporated to help the local community to better understand the value of wetlands – and the essentially important services they provide, such as the supply of reed and screw pines for their weaving and as well as provision of taro for their source of food.

With the added knowledge on the sustainable use of natural resources, the participants from the livelihood improvement trainings such as Aminath, can become strong advocates for nature-based approaches to conservation and to safeguarding important ecosystems such as wetlands are protected.

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I held an Angel in my arms

“Alhey, nethey heartbeat eh”

These were the words that changed my whole life.


I don’t know if it is a taboo topic or not, but I have never heard of any statistics or any awareness news regarding stillbirth in the Maldives. Of course I know about people having miscarriages and people giving birth to stillborn babies randomly in Maldives but no one I know ever experienced this. So when I had to go through the experience of my baby dying inside my womb, I did not know what to do, I was dumbstruck, keeping aside the sadness. When you experience certain difficult situations in life, you are somewhat prepared to a certain extent, but in a country where your monthly pre-natal visits is just checking your bps, weight and Doppler scans for fetal heart beat without any other information from your doctor, you are just stuck in an abyss when they tell you the baby you have been carrying for 9 months has just died! This was what happened to me, I did not know how to react, I did not even remember to call my husband. I guess the radiologist would be somewhat relieved that all the emotional drama she would have expected did not happen from my side. My brain was in denial. It took around 5 minutes for me to get over the shock and for the full impact of what was going to happen to hit me.


In here I am trying to put into words one of the most difficult experiences of my life. It was a life changing experience for me and I would never want any mother to go through with it ever. More than this I want to honour my son by writing about the beautiful and cute baby boy I gave birth to. Though he was born sleeping and silent, he was perfect, and he had the same features as his 2 year old brother. We named him Ismail Alvan Ahmed.

“Vu” has been his name ever since I began to look I was pregnant, Vu was the name my 2 year old son Alaan gave to the baby bump. So everyone started calling the new baby about come “Vu”. The 8 and a half months that followed were exciting, preparation were made for the new one’s arrival, all his clothes were bought by my sister from Australia. We even took measurements to get his cot made and the beddings were already bought. My eldest son would give a kiss to my belly every morning saying “kokko” meaning little brother. It was almost nine months of planning, preparations, doctor visits, scans, eagerness and waiting.

One day when I was 34 weeks pregnant, I felt less movements compared to other days. Vu was always less active than Alaan when I compared both pregnancies. But my doctor eased my worry away saying all pregnancies are different and I was having a “textbook” pregnancy. Everything was normal and I was asked to do the routine scans, one at first trimester and second one at 6 months. I was supposed to do the third scan around 34 weeks and since my pregnancy was not considered as a high risk one my doctor felt there was no need for frequent scans.


At 34 weeks my doctor was away on leave, and on the day I felt less movement was a Friday and I went to a clinic instead of the emergency room since I wanted to see a specialist doctor. This gynaecologist at the private clinic checks for the heartbeat and told me baby was ok and I also heard the heartbeat but she did not recommend a non-stress for me and asked me to get a scan. I got the appointment the following day and that changed everything. I can still hear the radiologist’s voice, it did not take a second for her to tell me that there was no heartbeat. When I was being prepared for the scan I told her about less movement and that there was fetal heartbeat when I went to the doctor the previous night. Later on she asked me who was the doctor who told me there was a heartbeat but I don’t think blaming the doctor would have brought my baby back.


I was not prepared for what would happen next. When I was getting out of the scan room all I could think about was what was going to happen next. I kept looking at my huge belly and thought how could someone even expect me to go through labour and childbirth. At that point in time I knew I had to give birth to this baby and I had made up my mind that I would be having an elective c-section to avoid the pain of labour but deep down inside I knew the normal protocol in a Maldivian hospital would be labour.

I was the one who carried this baby for 34 weeks and I had my bonding with this baby already and I never expected even my husband to be as devastated as I was, but he also requested a c-section. But the emergency room doctors told us about hospital policy or something and told us that we would be getting a place from labour room after 2 days. I heard this with absolute disbelief and sometimes I wonder if I had been paranoid or if I really heard it. But my husband told me they did say it and that was when we demanded to speak with our doctor. Then the ER people asked us if we had an appointment for the doctor for that day. OMG, I was so saddened to mind much but now when I recall that day, I keep getting so mad. By our luck the doctor was on duty and we went straight to his room.
I told the doctor that I could not cope with labour and I do not want a sleeping baby after the pain of delivery. With the doctor’s support and encouraging words, I slowly adjusted to the idea of going through labour. I would forever be grateful to this doctor who told me that giving birth to my baby would be something I would never regret and something I would cherish forever, and it would be the last honour as a mother I could give him. Ofcourse he also did tell me all the drawbacks of having an unnecessary surgery and with his encouragement I changed my mind and was ready to go through labour. They did offer me to go home and get induced the next day but I wanted to get started with the birth.

After 12 hours of labour I gave birth to my beautiful baby boy on 23rd October at 1 am. We so wished that I would deliver on 22nd since I gave birth to my eldest son on 23rd October two years ago. As God willed, I gave birth to my sons on the same day and I still do now know how I am going to cope with celebrating one son’s birthday without feeling guilty and sad about the loss of the other son.
I knew I could not keep on holding my baby forever and I would have to hand him over for the funeral. When I was in labour me and my husband had agreed that we would not take any photographs but I was so wishing for a moment alone with my baby for me to take a snap but my husband was with me all the time. Had I been left alone, I am sure I would have taken a snap .

I can still feel the utter grief and pain that consumed me at that point when he was to be taken to funeral home and I demanded them to give me the baby once again. It was so devastating to say goodbye to part of me after almost 9 months. My eldest son has a dimple on his left cheek and I keep wondering if Vu would have the dimple or not;(. As I write this it still doesn’t seem real. No parent should out live a child and no parent should ever have to give birth to a sleeping angel, which is the ultimate pain.

Upon delivery I had learnt that my baby died due to Inter Uterine Growth Restriction (IUGR) and placental insufficiency. The saddest thing for me is when I read about IUGR babies and came to know that 95% of IUGR babies have a survival rate if detected early. I keep blaming myself for not demanding for a scan at 7 months and 8 months check-up. My doctor kept telling me they had no reason to suspect for IUGR since everything was normal with me and I had a previous normal pregnancy. It seems my baby had stopped growing at 28 weeks and I kept thinking about “ifs” and such things and I became my worst enemy. I kept blaming myself for what had happened. That was when my sister told me that I should stop reading about internet forums since reading was making my condition worse and should read about stillborn babies in Islam. That was a turning point for me and I would write about that in another post.
I wish Maldivian doctors or health ministry would release statistics on stillbirths in Maldives and spread awareness on kick counts and kick charts. I have read from SANDS that 50% of stillbirth could have been avoided!

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Things I Already Miss About My Baby

Do you know what doesn’t stay tiny long enough? Little babies, wow, they grow so faaaaaast! Of course, I did enjoy all the itsy bitsy stage and yet it went way too fast for me

I can hardly remember them all, but I know how anxious I was for Alaan to start crawling and my mom reminding me that he would do it in time. I was in the same anxious state for him to start rolling over, waving, cutting his first tooth and walking and all the other milestones. And now I find myself getting a little misty about all the little things he has already outgrown.

I just miss the adorable toothless gummy smiles, having to carry him in the baby carrier for walks (now he has outgrown this), monthly portrait sessions (we took portraits photos till one year on every month on his birth date), etc
I guess the only way to really fix this nostalgia is to do this all over again 

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The Light of My Life

These days I have been wondering a lot about being a mother and what it means for me now as well as the implications it has for my future. I think about fights I had with my parents when I was in my teens and I fear the day that my baby can see my blunders and is mad enough to call me out on them.
But for the time being, my son is the shining light of my life. However much I complain about sleepless nights when I am used a human pacifier, the grumpy and crabby days, and even the fussy drinking; I could not possibly imagine this point in my life without him.

Right now, I am so grateful for my babyish baby boy Alaan and for the happiness he brings to our family. I am also incredibly grateful to have a very supportive and caring mother who looks after Alaan when I am at work. My mother is the best grandmother a baby could ever have, and she jumped in with two feet right along with me in bringing up this wonderful baby. Yes baby, you are light of our lives

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