Postpartum hemorrhage is the leading cause of maternal mortality worldwide, and the rising rates of maternal mortality and disability are affecting many women, children, and families. There is a medical device called Uterine Balloon Tamponade (UBT) that can stop bleeding by compressing the inner wall of the uterus. However, UBT is not widely available in poor and remote areas and is not cheap ($400). What about laboring women in poor areas? Doctors in the Department of Global Health and Human Rights at Massachusetts General Hospital invented an inexpensive “life-saving device”. The cheap alternative device, called ESM-UBT, requires only a clean condom, a catheter and a syringe. It all adds up to less than$5, but it has saved countless women from hemorrhaging! Anne Mulinge, a midwife in Nairobi, Kenya, and her colleagues have used ESM-UBT to save many women in critical condition. Early last year, one woman had just expelled her placenta a few minutes before she began to hemorrhage,” she says. Blood was flowing out from underneath her like water, and the whole bed was stained red. I suddenly remembered the simple UBT I had on hand and immediately gave it to her. Within 5 minutes, the bleeding was under control. After a few days, she was discharged peacefully from the hospital, holding her baby.” The data shows that this UBT, although simple and cheap, has a 97% success rate! In addition, its use is so simple that even untrained health workers in poor areas can easily operate it: first, the introducer tube is inserted into the condom. Then, tie the joint tightly with a clean thread. Next, the condom with the catheter is inserted by hand into the woman’s uterus. A syringe is attached to the other end of the catheter and saline is injected into it. The condom slowly bulges out and presses against the inner wall of the uterus to stop the bleeding. Currently, this cheap and highly effective ESM-UBT is in use in a number of underdeveloped countries such as Kenya, South Sudan, Sierra Leone, Senegal and Nepal. In South Sudan alone, more than 870 healthcare workers in remote areas have received this life-saving tool. Many of them are illiterate and have not received professional medical training, but have learned how to use the ESM-UBT. In Kenya, the staff promoting the ESM-UBT worked with the Kenyan Ministry of Health in hopes of popularizing the tool and saving more women in labor. In the first 11 months, they administered ESM-UBT to 27 women who had suffered postpartum hemorrhage. women who had been unconscious or confused had their bleeding quickly controlled, and none died or were left disabled. Africa bears one-quarter of the world’s disease burden, but has a staggering imbalance of only 3% of the global health workforce. Across the continent, millions and millions of people suffer needlessly due to lack of access to health services provided by trained medical personnel. The question of how to address the health workforce crisis in Africa is even more pressing.