Nairobi, April 8 -- Nobody told Mary Adoyo that her body could do this. She figured it out herself, one night, trying to quieten a newborn granddaughter whose mother had just died.

When her eldest daughter, Marren Akinyi, died of postpartum haemorrhage in 2019, Mary stepped into a role no mother ever imagines, becoming both guardian and lifeline to the child left behind. She recalls escorting Marren, who was 19, to a traditional birth attendant's home in Homa Bay County ahead of the delivery, in anticipation of a new life.

Instead, within a day of giving birth, Marren died from excessive bleeding. Her body was taken to the county referral hospital mortuary, and Mary returned home carrying not only grief but also a fragile newborn grandd...