From a young age, starting in the classroom and continuing straight into her career, hers has been a journey that never paused, but instead turned into a life mission. For 44 consecutive years, Hilmije Havolli has not only been a professional in the delivery room, but a living testament to dedication, sacrifice, and unconditional love for life just beginning, KosovaPress reports.

On International Day of the Midwife, her story shows how joy and pain intertwine in the most sincere way. She describes the feeling of holding a newborn in her hands as a miracle that never fades, regardless of the years or fatigue.

Havolli feels fulfilled with every joy she has helped bring into life, but also with every hardship she has shared with mothers.

The head midwife told KosovaPress that in difficult cases, “midwives die before the mothers.”

“We celebrate almost every day, because it’s difficult for us to have holidays—we are always here where we are needed. I have 44 years of experience, in two months I will retire, and I am very happy for all these years, for the experience. I hope that all the patients who have passed through my hands are also happy. I feel very spiritually fulfilled with them, and we have shared every joy together and every hardship—not to say that in severe cases perhaps we have ‘died’ before them. It is a wonderful feeling, starting from the fact that I am also a mother. But the happiness I see in every mother—there is no happier moment in the world than becoming a mother,” she said.

However, behind this noble mission lie many challenges that midwives at the Gynecology Clinic at the University Clinical Center of Kosovo (QKUK) face every day.

Havolli emphasizes that staff shortages further complicate their work, which already carries great responsibility.

She also notes that midwives are undervalued for their work, as weekend and holiday shifts are not equally compensated, yet the work has always continued.

“Conditions have not been fully met because we have always had staff shortages. In the delivery room, over the past three years, seven midwives have retired, and I have not been replaced—I continue with a smaller staff. The conditions are not ideal… Specifically regarding paid shifts, doctors are paid for weekends, midwives are not. Holidays are clearly paid more for doctors, less for midwives. There is a discrepancy, yet despite that, the work has continued and will always continue,” she added.

Havolli says she has built her life within the walls of the clinic, where she grew both professionally and personally.

After 44 years of service, now just two months away from the end of her career, she feels fulfilled.

In the end, her message to young midwives remains simple—a call to love the profession.

May 5 marks the International Day of the Midwife and the beginning of Nurses Week.