Kampala Slum Maternal Newborn project launched
May 07, 2019
A baseline study was done and data from the Health Information Systems, Ministry of Health showed there was a total of 879 maternal deaths in the period of 2014 to 2018 in the hospitals around Kampala.
MATERNAL HEALTH
KAMPALA-A project to provide affordable quality health care, reduce maternal and newborn deaths in Kampala slums has been launched.
The project dubbed," Kampala Slum Maternal Newborn (MaNe)," was launched recently at Kitebi Health Center III in Rubaga division in Kampala district.
The director public health at Kampala Capital City Authority, Dr. Daniel Okello said the three year project will be implemented in the informal settlement (slums) of Makindye and Rubaga division, areas which present with very low poverty index levels.
"70% of Kampala's population is in the informal settlement and this is where the mothers who need health care are situated," Dr. Okello said.
A baseline study was done and data from the Health Information Systems, Ministry of Health showed there was a total of 879 maternal deaths in the period of 2014 to 2018 in the hospitals around Kampala. This means about 200 mothers die every year.
Associate Professor at Makerere School of Public Health Dr. Peter Waiswa addressing guest during the launch of the MaNe Project. (Photo by Agnes Kyotalengerire)
In the same period, a total of 17,194 deaths were registered for still births and early neonatal deaths. This translates to 4,300 deaths per year and out of those 2, 800 are still births and about 1,500 are neonatal deaths.
Dr. Peter Waiswa who is the associate professor at Makerere School of Public Health said the news of women and newborn babies dying in Kampala with some very close to health facilities is unacceptable.
Prof. Waiswa said the issue of urban health should be extended to not just Kampala but also to the districts around Kampala.
The country representative Population Services International (PSI), Dr. Dorothy Balaba Byansi said the project will also focus on the disease recognition and health seeking behavior of women in Kampala.
According to Dr. Balaba, the project will get down into the communities and try to address reasons why women do not seek health care in time and why some do not deliver in health facilities.
In addition, it will explore how health centers refer cases, said Dr. Balaba.
She said the project will use the implementation researches as opposed to the ordinary research.
It is testing innovations and seeing whether they will impact on health indicators.
We are using the human centered design where we think the woman is at the center and if we are to design everything the woman should be at the center and everything must serve the woman," Dr. Balaba said.
This means the woman must be part of identifying the challenges, the lady or the community must be part of designing the innovation. The project will test and see if it works and if it does, there will be learning and so it will inform the urban policy, she said
The three year, Sh5b project funded by USAID, is implemented by Population Services International (PSI), Makerere School of Public Health and Kampala City Council Authority.
Dr. Charles Olara, who is the director for clinical and Community services at the health ministry says the project will help improve the poor health seeking behavior of pregnant women and mothers.
"It is going to be a blue print which the country has been waiting for to bridge the gaps," Dr. Olara said
Statistics of maternal and newborn death
Uganda loses about 16 mothers while giving birth which is a reduction from 19 maternal deaths about three years ago.
The number of babies dying in Uganda is equally high. The neonatal death rate for the last 15 years has stagnated at 27 babies dying out of the 1000 live births.
This translates to about to 36,100 newborns a year. But this does not include another 34,000 stillbirths, babies who die in the womb.
Prof. Waiswa said if Uganda did the interventions that are already in government policy, we would be able to reduce all these deaths by 90%.
"This is what the sustainable development goals are asking for that we should do a radicle intervention to reduce the number of mothers, newborns who die," said Prof. Waiswa
He however said if Uganda is to achieve the sustainable development goal targets that stipulate that Uganda should not have a maternal mortality ration of not more than 140 per 100,000 live births, we must work six times more and if we are to achieve the target for children, we must work 12 times more.