Hospital births reduce maternal mortality rate

By NAFTAL MAKORI

The number of deliveries in the month of May and June in Nyamira District hospital increased by 12.5 per cent. World Health Organisation estimates 1,500 women die every day globally due to pregnancy and childbirth related complications with developing nations recording the highest deaths.

Nyamira County Director of Health Jack Magara told The Standard On Saturday most women choose home deliveries due to prohibitive heath care costs exposing themselves to numerous risks. “For instance cases of prolonged labour might lead to complications and even death,” he says.

He adds: “Prolonged labour causes mental disturbances to the child, fistulas for the mother and may lead to death of both.”

Dr Magara says between 2012 and 2013 skilled care deliveries has improved from 58 per cent to 76 per cent. The public health experts have trained over 900 community health workers to support rural women, who may not have access to hospitals. “We require to train at least 600 more community health workers so that they support technical staff to enhance maternal and child health programmes,” he says.

Experts who fault the free maternity services argue that inadequate staff would affect the quality of health care provision. In Nyamira County for instance, 41 nurses attend to a population of 100,000 contrary to the WHO recommended ratio of 2.3 nurses to population 1,000.

 In the county, there is only one gynecologist who is based at Nyamira District Hospital. There are about 400 nurses and some 300 more would be required if the pressure on the available staff was to reduce.

Magara says that due to increased numbers of pregnant women seeking the free services, staff have been strained by the workload.