Malawi safemotherhood crisis: 9 pregnant women die as 65 deliver at home in Chitipa
Despite campaigns by different stakeholders on safe motherhood initiatives, Chitipa District Council has registered 65 home deliveries and nine deaths of pregnant women in six months.
Chitipa District Hospital matron, Grace Chamdimba said hat deliveries and deaths occurred during the first half of 2017 to 2018 financial year.
Chamdimba was speaking during community awareness campaign by White Ribbon Alliance in Traditional Authority (TA) Mwenemisuku on Tuesday.
She said among the nine, were six Malawians, two Zambians and one Tanzanian.
‘‘It is worrisome that some women are still delivering at home leading to deaths despite that there have been vigorous campaigns on the need for women to give birth in health facilities.
‘‘There is need for all partners to take business unusual and work as a team to sensitize communities on the importance of delivering at hospitals,’’ Chamdimba said.
Referral cases in Chitipa are a nightmare as the only ambulance available at the hospital caters for 12 health facilities that are located far apart from each other.
Meanwhile, White Ribbon Alliance has strengthened capacity building of local structures to ensure that there is reduced number of home deliveries in the district.
The international non-governmental organisation’s national coordinator, Nancy Kamwendo said though there is an improvement on attitude by workers in some health facilities, there are others who are still using abusive language and are failing to attend to the clients in time.
To this effect, Kamwendo said, White Ribbon Alliance is sensitizing communities on their rights on matters of health.
