Uganda’s maternal mortality still high

Jun 11, 2007

Pregnancy is the main cause of death among women of reproductive age globally, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) reports.

By Alice Emasu

Pregnancy is the main cause of death among women of reproductive age globally, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) reports.

WHO defines maternal death as “the death of women while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and the site of the pregnancy, from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy.”

According to WHO, the major causes of pregnancy related deaths, include haemorrhage (loss of blood), hypertensive disorders (related to high blood pressure), sepsis, abortion, obstructed labour, ectopic pregnancies (pregnancy in the tubes outside the uterus) and embolism (blood clots blocking blood vessels).

United Nations Children’s Fund(UNICEF) says each year, more than half a million women die due to pregnancy-related complications and child birth.

“More shocking news is that this number has not substantially changed in over the past two decades. Ninety percent of maternal mortality occurs in developing countries where more than 50% of women still deliver without assistance of skilled health personnel,” says UNICEF’s 2005 report.

In Uganda, maternal death rate remained constantly high at 505 per 100,000 live births for over a decade. But the recent Uganda Demographic Health Survey preliminary Statistics of 2006, however show that the number of women dying from pregnancy complications has gone down from 505 deaths per 100, 000 live births in 2000/2001 to 435 women in 2006.

However, health experts caution that the reduction should not cause excitement to make people relax in their efforts to save mothers. They recommend that more studies need to be done to confirm the slight achievement.

Prof. Florence Mirembe, Uganda’s senior woman gynaecologist says it is possible to reduce maternal death in the country. She says with intensive massive mobilisation and education of the communities to realise that pregnancy, labour and delivery carries high risks, the current high rate of the vice can be minimised or eliminated.

She says currently the communities need to be mobilised into groups and encouraged to save for pregnant women in their families and communities. They need to be provided with skills for engaging in productive economic activities that bring regular incomes into their pockets which they would prioritised to help pregnant mothers who require emergency obstetric care facilities.

She notes that some of the community’s members should be trained as volunteers to offer home-to-home safe motherhood talks as a preventive measure to maternal death.

“The volunteers should be able to counsel and mentor pregnant women, their families and friends so that they plan and prepare for delivery. Most people do not plan where to deliver their babies. They do not prepare any money for use during an emergency,” she observes.

Above all, Mirembe says, men’s involvement right at the time of pregnancy, labour and delivery is very critical in reducing maternal death. She warns that failure by men to wake and actively participate in pregnancy matters is one of the many explanations for the constantly high maternal death rate in the country.

“Men also need to wake up and plan for funds to support pregnant mothers such that even if labour starts while he is away from home, the woman does not need to wait for him because she lucks money,” she stresses.

The reduction of maternal death, says WHO, is a key international development goal. It says evidence-based health policies and programmes aiming to reduce maternal death need reliable and valid information.

“Better care at child birth and more access to that care would substantially reduce maternal death rates. Most maternal deaths occur among poor women who live in remote areas. Studies have shown that maternal death rates are higher in areas where access to a hospital is more difficult. When access to hospitals improves, maternal mortality rates is likely to drop,” WHO stresses.

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