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July 2021 marks the 10th birthday of South Sudan – the world's youngest country . In 2019, illustrator Ella Baron visited the town of Pibor to document the lengths that some mothers must go to reach maternity care in this part of the world.

The birth story of Maria and her mother Laito unravels as an extraordinary race with life-or-death stakes.

It is not, however, extraordinary at all. Their experience is a commonplace reality in areas of South Sudan where infrastructure is limited and where seemingly simple things can quickly become desperately complicated. The consequences of decades of violence are all around.

Having access to medical assistance in childbirth is important wherever you are in the world as complications can require specialist medical intervention to save the lives of both mother and baby.

In 2020, of approximately 2,300 health facilities in South Sudan, more than 1,300 were non-functional.

Fewer than half of South Sudanese people live within five kilometres of a functional health facility.

MSF is doing its part to help, and in 2020 MSF teams assisted 13,400 births in South Sudan.