First Lady tips women on healthy births
May 12, 2010
THE First Lady, Janet Museveni, has urged pregnant mothers to deliver at health units to scale down maternal mortality rates.
By Daniel Edyegu
THE First Lady, Janet Museveni, has urged pregnant mothers to deliver at health units to scale down maternal mortality rates.
Speaking at Butaleja district Women’s Day celebrations held at Busolwe Secondary School last week, Mrs. Museveni stressed that curtailing maternal mortality would require all women to get involved in ensuring safety during child delivery.
“More than 6,000 women die annually due to maternal health. We tend to think that child-birth is a normal thing and nobody talks about it when it takes a toll on our mothers,†Mrs. Museveni said.
Maternal mortality rates have remained high because people forget the need for mothers to give birth under the care of skilled health workers, she added.
Mrs. Museveni noted that although the health units were still inadequate and their quality of services average, the Government had endeavoured to improve the health sector to sustain safe child delivery.
She urged husbands to take care of their pregnant wives and to provide necessities for child- birth.
“Men have a role to ensure that their wives get antenatal care and deliver safely,†Mrs. Museveni said.
She, however, observed that rather than wait for hand-outs from men, women should engage in income-generating activities to save for antenatal services.
The district chairman, Richard Waya, asked the First Lady to lobby for the improvement of Busolwe Hospital.
Waya observed that the equipment in the hospital, which currently serves patients from Tororo, Budaka and Bugiri districts, is worn out and is incapable of sustaining the rising numbers of patients.
“The annual hospital budget has stagnated for the last five years. The buildings have decayed. The x-ray machine does not function so pregnant women do their scans at Mbale Hospital,†Waya said.
The situation worsened when floods washed away the Mbale-Butaleja highway because patients had to travel through Tororo to Mbale as the Doko route was flooded, he added.
THE First Lady, Janet Museveni, has urged pregnant mothers to deliver at health units to scale down maternal mortality rates.
Speaking at Butaleja district Women’s Day celebrations held at Busolwe Secondary School last week, Mrs. Museveni stressed that curtailing maternal mortality would require all women to get involved in ensuring safety during child delivery.
“More than 6,000 women die annually due to maternal health. We tend to think that child-birth is a normal thing and nobody talks about it when it takes a toll on our mothers,†Mrs. Museveni said.
Maternal mortality rates have remained high because people forget the need for mothers to give birth under the care of skilled health workers, she added.
Mrs. Museveni noted that although the health units were still inadequate and their quality of services average, the Government had endeavoured to improve the health sector to sustain safe child delivery.
She urged husbands to take care of their pregnant wives and to provide necessities for child- birth.
“Men have a role to ensure that their wives get antenatal care and deliver safely,†Mrs. Museveni said.
She, however, observed that rather than wait for hand-outs from men, women should engage in income-generating activities to save for antenatal services.
The district chairman, Richard Waya, asked the First Lady to lobby for the improvement of Busolwe Hospital.
Waya observed that the equipment in the hospital, which currently serves patients from Tororo, Budaka and Bugiri districts, is worn out and is incapable of sustaining the rising numbers of patients.
“The annual hospital budget has stagnated for the last five years. The buildings have decayed. The x-ray machine does not function so pregnant women do their scans at Mbale Hospital,†Waya said.
The situation worsened when floods washed away the Mbale-Butaleja highway because patients had to travel through Tororo to Mbale as the Doko route was flooded, he added.