‘1,500 mothers die every day during child birth’

It is 8a.m at Mbarara Referral Hospital. Patients, attendants and other visiting guests are freely moving in and out of the hospice. Inside the hospital, doctors and nurses have picked up their tools, carrying out morning ward round.

At 9a.m, a saloon car enters the hospital and within minutes, a stretcher is rolled close to it. Quickly, an expecting mother is fetched from the car and laid on a stretcher. She is pushed down to the maternity ward by midwives as her husband follows carrying essentials to use. The panic exhibited in the process is enough to show that the mother is already in critical condition.

Blood oozing from her drips through the entire passageway to the ward. Dr Anthony Olupot is called urgently to attend to her. “Why did you delay her?” Dr Olupot asks the husband, who remains silent.

The chaos is heightened by women activists who are at the ward to create awareness on the grim state of mothers dying during labour and childbirth related complications. They have also been giving out mama kits to mothers. The women, some of them doctors, are curious to know what has really happened to the mother.

“Is this her first pregnancy? What is her name? Where do you live?” Those are some of the questions fired to the husband by the distressed ladies. But he simply remains quiet. He looks too scared to say a word.

At this moment, the doctor is examining the mother who is lying helplessly.
“Her uterus has ruptured. We should rush her to the theatre to save her life since the baby seems to be dead,” the doctor whispers to the nurse standing close to him. I quickly take out my camera to take a picture. But I am blocked by a nurse.
“It is not proper to take her photograph,” she says. But a friend on another-side manages to take one.

This angers all the staff and order us out. After some hours, we try another doctor’s number to see whether he can find out for us particulars of the mother but the calls are not picked.

Dr Angelina Dawa, of Abantu for Development, who was leading the group that made a stop over at the hospital says every minute, a woman dies because of childbirth related complication worldwide. This accounts for 1,500 women who die daily.
She says rural and poor women who don’t have equal access to quality skills care are the most affected.

“The gap in accessing skilled care is widest between urban and rural areas as well as between rich and poor women,” Dr Dawa who was also leading the East African Caravan on Maternal Health to Kampala, adds.

The caravan that travelled from Kenya through Tanzania and Rwanda, before entering Uganda through Katuna border on July 11, is in connection with this year’s African Union (AU) summit, whose theme is on maternal and child health. The summit started on July 17 and will end on July 27.

Ms Norah Matovu, the Executive Director of African Women’s Development and Communication Network (Feminet) says the majority of women die from severe bleeding, infections, eclampsia, obstructed labour and the consequences of unsafe abortions, which all have effective interventions.

There is an urgent need to address a well-functioning and responsive health system, including supply of drugs, functioning health centres with quality referral facilities and transport in order to improve maternal and newborn health, she adds.
Enid Mwebaza, a Nursing Assistant Commissioner, says every pregnant woman needs skilled, medical attention and trained medical personnel, and not including Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs).

“We are not decampaigning TBAs but they are handicapped,” she says.
Research shows that in case of a complication, a TBA delays the process of the mother getting proper medical attention.

According to Ms Butegwa, the views gathered along the caravan routes would be presented to the African heads of states at the summit. “We want to urge the heads of states and governments to act now and guarantee maternal and child health in Africa,” she adds.