We must prioritise maternal health as we celebrate this Women’s Day

As I write this week’s column, I am dealing with the death of a lovely young woman I watched grow,  go to school, graduate and get a job.  I am still in denial, that she is gone. She started a family last year and was carrying a pregnancy we were all looking forward to  and the baby. We all loved her dearly.  One of those very good girls, full of promise.

While she had a perfectly normal pregnancy, and was four weeks away from her due date, she suddenly developed high blood pressure and was rushed to hospital. In a matter of hours, she was operated, and died. Just like that. 

Her promising future gone while her young husband and now baby, are staring into uncertainty of life without their loved one. This girl, one of the many whose life’s journey is truly one to be celebrated, was cut short. And it is very tragic.

It is these tragedies, such as the loss of a beautiful and brilliant young woman full of promise, to giving birth, that you begin to wonder why the bringing forth life should be for many young women, a matter of life and death. How unnecessary all this is. 

My Eva’s death, is just fresh, because it happened the morning of this writing, but I hear these stories often. In fact, two weeks ago, I know another young woman who died, after giving birth, because she over bled, and the hospital did not have blood. Her baby followed her the day she was buried, apparently, because the baby was tired in the process of delivery. Such things, the kind that we should not be dealing with, now cost real young women full of promise, their life. 

Giving birth, appears to be the one thing that still stands in the way of many young women’s career growth and development. That it is something to fear, a first child ending one’s life or putting a long hold to their career. Because even those who become mothers, still have a lot to deal with.

Last week, I attended a conference organised by AfriChild, to discuss the use of research evidence in policy and practice, in order to ensure that our children’s wellbeing is secured. One of the papers discussed the plight of breastfeeding mothers in institutions of higher learning. The paper largely looked at women working in universities.  To our dismay, the researchers, led by Prof  Kukunda Elizabeth Bacwayo of Uganda Christian University,  told us that many institutions,  did not have any safe space for women to breastfeed. 

Imagine, the things we take for granted, that institutions hiring women to work, will also care about a natural process that these women must deal with, giving birth, and plan for clean spaces for women to take their children and still be able to work and have access to their infants. No, that is too much to deal with. 

We also heard, that in spite of existing policies, very few organisations have such spaces for women. In the case of the women interviewed, many of them found their cars, or corridors as the most appropriate space to breastfeed. If they brought a maid to mind their child, these stayed in the verandah with the baby while mother worked. Leaving their infants at home, although often they work far from home, appears to be the best option. Most organisations, just don’t want to know how women deal with these things. 

Yet, we keep wondering why women leave the work space when they start having families. Unfortunately, starting a family as in the case of my young adopted niece, may mean death. So, women leave the workplace, because they have died while giving birth, or that giving birth has meant that they cannot continue to work because the work environment cannot give them the safe space within which to work. 

We underestimate the barriers that many women face on the basis of their gender, that might push them off work. When you think of the number of women who die giving birth per day then year, not because of any serious sickness, just giving birth, it makes you angry. 

This week, we will be celebrating the International Woman’s Day.  And there will be pages on end, celebrating the achievements women have made. And it will be the usual stories of progress, number of women in leadership and so on. And of course, naming all those people we think are successful, naming their achievements. And, government will be counting the many ways they have given women privileges. 

As the question was asked at the conference, what are women in leaderhip doing to improve the lot of women? If we accept that women are going to school and are prepared for the world of work, we must ensure that the world of work is prepared for them too. That they need not choose between their productive and reproductive sides is crucial for progress. One must not kill the other. They can have both. 

Ms Maractho (PhD) is the director of Africa Policy Centre and senior lecturer at Uganda Christian University.                       

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