Health officials decry rising maternal deaths in Bukwo

Authorities in Bukwo District have blamed the increasing cases of maternal deaths on the failure of expectant mothers to attend antenatal services and teenage pregnancies.

The health officials said in less than three years, the district registered 31 maternal deaths but noted that there were a lot of undocumented maternal deaths in the community. 

While presenting a status report on the state of sexual reproductive, maternal, and child health with a focus on adolescents and youth sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) during a district youth engagement meeting in Bukwo District last Tuesday, Mr Simon Onesmas Chemutai, the district Biostatistician, said key players including government need to intervene and reverse the trend.

“The major causes of maternal deaths are failure to attend antenatal care services, teenage pregnancy, obstructed labor, failure to utilise family planning methods and mothers attempting to deliver at their homes,” Mr Chemutai said. 

He said in 2020, they registered eight cases of maternal deaths, in 2019, they had seven while in 2018, cases of maternal deaths were nine and in 2017, seven cases were registered. 

Mr Chemutai said mothers visit traditional birth attendants while in labour but when things don’t work out, they  go to health facilities.

“By the time they come to the facility, we either lose a child or mother,” he said, adding that they registered 16,723 teenage pregnancies from 2017 to 2020.

He said they had engaged the Village Health Teams (VHTs) to encourage pregnant women to go for routine antenatal care.

The meeting was organised by the Uganda Youth and Adolescents Health Forum (UYAHF) in partnership with Men Engage and the Eastern African Sub-regional Support Initiative for the Advancement of Women (EASSI), to formulate and establish the functionality of the youth advisory group in Bukwo District. 

The Bukwo District health officer, Dr Edward Sabiti, blamed the deaths on rampant teenage pregnancy worsened by the coronavirus induced lockdowns.

“These young girls deliver when they are still young and when their bones are still weak. Also accessibility to health facilities in the district is not good,”Dr Sabiti said.

He added that accessibility to health facilities in the district was difficult due to the poor road network. 

“The roads in the district are impassable. Two days ago, a mother lost a baby due to poor roads. They delayed to reach the health facility and by the time she arrived, it was too late,” Mr Sabiti said. 

He added: “We have ambulances but the roads are bad and we don’t have fuel. To pick one mother from the village you need about 30 litres of fuel which we don’t have. Let us introduce the donkey ambulance to save the lives of our mothers.” 

Ms Medrine Chebet, a retired midwife, also said the health workers were ill-equipped to handle some emergency cases.  

“We also appeal to our leaders to advocate capacity building and also sexual reproductive health services,” Ms Chebet said.

Ms Agnes Chelimo, a mother, said: “I visited the facility which I can’t reveal in Bukwo District but unfortunately lost my baby due to delayed labour and delay by the health workers to attend to me.” 

Ms Chelimo said by the time the health workers arrived to help her, the baby was dead.

She said there is a need for the district to recruit more midwives and nurses to handle the big number of mothers delivering from the health centres.

“There is limited manpower at the health facilities in the district. This should be handled in order to fight maternal deaths,” she said. 

Mr Patrick Mwesigye, the executive director of UYAHF, said there is need to improve the referral systems from the health centres.

“By far pregnancy and childbirth related complications are one of the leading causes of deaths for girls between 15 and 19 years,”Mr Mwesigye said.

Mr Mwesigye said adolescent girls and young women are faced with several challenges such as teenage pregnancies, sexual and gender-based violence, and limited access to sexual reproductive information.

Mr Hassan Sekajoolo, the country coordinator for Men Engage, said they are in discussions with the district leaders and other stakeholders to find way of reducing the teenage pregnancies.

“We want to hear from them what they want us to do to make sure that the problem of young girls getting pregnant ends,” Mr Sekajoolo.