Pediatrician Steve Feder of Edgecomb does whatever he can to help a child, whether that means saving a newborn's life under trying conditions in another land or asking the Maine Legislature to ban tanning bed use by minors.

When the Lincoln Medical Partners doctor was volunteering in impoverished St. Lucia, he was lacking some of the medical equipment and supplies he used in the United States. In addition, working conditions in the hospital at the former U.S.military base were cramped.

It was not uncommon to have three or four women in labor in the same room.

One cesarean section birth had serious complications.

Both the mother's and baby's lives were in jeopardy, said Feder, between patients at his Boothbay Harbor office September 24.

The two patients had to share one oxygen source, and other fluids had to be used in lieu of a blood transfusion.

“You're making do with what you have available,” he said.

Both the mother and child survived.

Experiences like that one reset your perspective, Feder said. So did seeing 80 to 90 patients a day, as the lone doctor with other medical professionals in a remote Ugandan village.

“It's good training in terms of having to think fast and doing what you can with what you have,” he said.

They would work until it grew dark; there was no electricity. The water came in jugs.

The Bates College graduate's international work let him see firsthand the large problems those regions have with diseases like AIDS and sickle-cell anemia.

He recalled one young man who was dying of HIV complications. The team gave the man pain medication, antibiotics, a pillow and other supplies, Feder said.

There is not as much education about, or interest in, HIV prevention in Uganda, he said.

To see a young person so ill, he said, “That was hard.”

With so many people in need in Uganda, having to leave at the end of the mission trip was also hard, he said. But he knew that the Boothbay Baptist Church, which had arranged the trip, was making headway in establishing medical care there. (The church has continued making progress there, he said.)

Feder, 48, was due to be honored Thursday, Oct. 3, with a Champions for Children Giraffe Award from the Maine Children's Alliance. It's for sticking his neck out for children, according to a press release from the organization.

The release cites Feder's efforts on children's behalf, both in Maine and other nations.

“I feel humbled,” Feder said. “It means a lot because the Children's Alliance has given these awards before to people I really have a lot of respect for,” he said.

Currently president of the Maine chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Feder has helped advocate for obesity prevention; continued funding for MaineCare and Head Start; asthma control measures such as flu shots and education about controller medicines; and other child health issues.

The proposed tanning bed ban for minors passed in both the House and Senate, but later failed in the Legislature's attempt to override Gov. Paul LePage's veto, Feder said.

Originally from Portland, Ore., Feder, a scientist's son, worked as a National Health Service Corps scholar in Lincoln County.

That helped pay for medical school. But the kayaker and hiker stayed, making Maine his home because he loves it here, he said. He and his wife, anthropologist Amy Winston, have a young daughter, Josee.

The nod from the Maine Children’s Alliance adds to several professional awards Feder has received. Those include Outstanding Young Physician from the Maine Osteopathic Association in 2002; Outstanding Physician from the same group in 2006; and a pair of Community Physician awards, one from the Governor’s Council on Nutrition and Fitness, in 2006 and the other from the Governor’s Council on School Health in 2005.

Susan Johns can be reached at 207-844-4633 or susanjohns@wiscassetnewspaper.com