Beyond blame: Why Kenya keeps losing mothers in childbirth

Medic at Rabai sub-county hospital in Kilifi county attending a pregnant woman during her clinical visit to the facility. [Marion Kithi, Standard]

I still remember that night vividly. Four women arrived in labour—bleeding, terrified, and all in need of urgent care. We had one theatre. One anaesthetist. Virtually no blood.

I rushed the first mother in—she lived. The second, referred after hours of delay, died as we scrambled for blood. The third made it to surgery, but needed an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) bed that we didn’t have. The fourth kept crying as we moved between emergencies. There was no ICU bed for her. She lay in the ward, machines beeping weakly as we scrambled to find space. By dawn, two newborns had lost their mothers.