Relief for mothers in Narok as hospital offers specialised services

Approximately 108 kilometres west of Narok Town and just 12 kilometres from the Maasai Mara National Reserve is Talek Health Center, a faith-based facility upgraded from a Level 3 hospital to a Level 3b in March 2024. Melio Musanka, 25, donning a traditional Maasai outfit, is holding her son in the waiting bay. The mother of four says all her children were born at home. Her eldest is 13, and the youngest four years old but has milestone delays, which she noticed a month after birth and sought medical attention. Her son has been diagnosed with cerebral palsy. "Ever since I was born, I have never seen the need to go to the hospital because of the distance. I delivered all my babies at home with the help of my mother-in-law. So when I got my youngest child in 2021, all was well until I started noticing milestones delay. All his agemates have now started school," Musanka says. While making rounds in the hospital, I meet Miriam Koikai, a hotelier who has experienced seven miscarriages. She became a mother of two after visiting the facility in February with a high-risk pregnancy. Koikai delivered a preterm baby through caesarian. "It's been three weeks now. The baby is peaking. The first week she lost some weight, 50 grams, but after that, she started peaking and peaking. She was delivered at 1.3 kgs and now she is 1.6 kgs. Angela Mepuki has been a medical officer at Talik since its inception. She says the facility is the first in the Masai Mara region to offer assisted deliveries and has enhanced access to maternal care," Koikai says. Angela Mepuki, a medical officer at Talek Hospital said Koikai had miscarriages due to bicornuate uterus. "Bicornuate uterus is where the uterus of the woman is divided into two. Now this leads to believe that's why these babies were not going up to term because once the uterus is divided into two then the baby is in a very small portion," Mepuki says. "One can imagine the distress the mothers would endure during that travel. Some would end up losing their babies and others would also lose their lives. For decades inadequate facilities and equipment made this region experience some of Kenya's worst maternal and child health outcomes since they had to travel for hundreds of kilometres to get proper medical care," Talek Health Facility Manager Erick Otieno says. To avert this situation M-PESA Foundation partnered with Gertrudes Children's Hospital and set up a telemedicine centre where patients see a specialist virtually. "There were a lot of incidents of patients moving here to Nauru for a pediatrician which in the past has never happened. Also known as Daktari Smart, telemedicine ensures access to specialist consultations from Gatewood Children's Hospital, eliminating the need for patients to travel to either Nauru town or Nairobi," Vincent Watachum, telemedicine coordinator, says. "I am afraid of hearing about radiation. I hear about Dr Resmart. I have a child who has rheumatic disorder. What do I do? I tell him to come. When a patient walks in, the coordinator makes a call to Gatewood Hospital, schedules an appointment with a specialist, and then has a session. This one is a test scope, so I will just put on the test, and then the doctor at Gatewood will be able to hear the sound," Watachum adds. Once the patient walks into the facility, tests are done, and then they speak virtually to a specialist from Gertrude's Hospital. They only pay for medicine but the other services are free. Gertrudes Hospital Foundation manager D. Carol Waweru says they have telemedicine in Samburu, Baringo, Lamu, Homa Bay and Narok and that their project has helped break the distance challenge. "We are running telemedicine services for children aged 0 to 21 years. So children around Narok West and the entire Narok County can receive consultation from our specialists through telemedicine," Dr Waweru says. However, power outages are some of the challenges they have experienced so far but 2,500 children have benefited from the program. To create awareness, the facility works with community health volunteers who link the residents in the remote area to the facility. Talek health centre manager says they have been in operation for three decades but following a spike in cases of childbirth defects, the newly launched maternal and child care has helped reduce the cases. "We see a lot of children with cerebral palsy, and this is a pointer towards some of the incidences they experienced in the past where there was a lack of resuscitation or prolonged labour or the babies were delivered under some difficult situations, and they could not get help at the right time," Otieno says. M-Pesa Foundation says the initiative is not just about building a hospital but a direct result of M-Pesa's powerful financial and digital ecosystem enabling seamless transactions, funding and access to medical care. "Our health programs are very, very vibrant, so we work in infrastructure improvement in maternal units, maternal child health units, over and above that, in some areas, we have programs around educating people in the community on the importance of antenatal and postnatal care and also delivering in hospitals. Over and above maternal health, we also have medical camps. These have become some of the biggest and most popular," Safaricom Foundation Manager says. "Prevention is better than cure. If I give a rough estimate, we've been able to transform almost 77 million lives in health and also through all these interventions. I've been to so many hospitals and gynecologists but no one has ever discovered my problem,". As M-Pesa marks 18 years in the market, residents of Talek in Narok County are celebrating the positive impact made by its foundation in the Maasai Mara region. This comes a year after the M-Pesa Foundation partnered with Gertrude Children's Hospital to set up a telemedicine centre to boost access to medical care for expectant mothers and their children.

Relief for mothers in Narok as hospital offers specialised services

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