Gender Equality Uganda Project #17619

Providing Maternal Health Care to 60 mothers

by Karin Community Initiatives Uganda

Project Report | Dec 6, 2016
Creating brighter futures for women and babies

By Hope Okeny | Project Leader

maternity health

Dear Friends,

It’s noon, the sun is high and the air is stifling. The heavily pregnant woman has just walked four kilometers under the hot sun to get to the clinic. She immediately sits under the verandah because she is very tired.

The nurse finds her outside and asks her if she has been attended to and invites her inside to the antenatal room. Nancy is here for last antenatal visit. She has five children and this will be her sixth child. Nancy explains to the nurse that she does not plan to have anymore children. She explains that her last five children were delivered by a traditional birth attendant. Her last pregnancy was very difficult and she was referred to a nearest health centre and was lucky that she delivered safely. She has decided to come to the clinic for antenatal visits, because the local health volunteer educated her on the importance of visiting a qualified health worker.

Traditional birth attendants are trusted members in the communities. They have been used by women to help deliver babies using local herbs during labour. These herbs may seem to be harmless but many times have caused dangerous contractions leading to the eruption of the uterus.

They operate in dirty areas using unsterilized equipment. Their lack of medical knowledge also makes them unable to recognize complications that arise during pregnancy or childbirth. Making deliveries very risky for both the mother and the baby.

Nancy was wise to seek the counsel of a qualified health worker after her experience. The traditional birth attendant's home has neither electricity nor running water. When a pregnant woman needs to relieve herself she will use the pit latrine, where there is no soap or water for washing.

She could develop an infection as a result of the unhygienic conditions in which she plans to give birth, she and/her baby would become septic and die. Should she develop life-threatening complications during her labour, the five children who wait for her at home may never see their mother again.

Maternal health is a significant health and human rights challenge that governments, non governmental organizations need to critically focus on. Mothers are the ultimate game changers in the lives of their children; the death of one mother often leaves family of orphans whose prospects - without a mother who dies, many more suffer disabilities from there pregnancies and deliveries, causing a multitude of health and socio-economic problems.

Friend, these vulnerable women need your support.

We ask you to use your mouse to click more, take five minutes to share our global giving page with your contacts and tell them why you decide to donate to us and why they should do the same. Share our face book page https://web.facebook.com/karincommunity/ and learn more about our work. OR even redeem a gift card this season.

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Thank you for your support!

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Sep 8, 2016
Improving health governance

By hope okeny | Project Leader

HUMC meeting

Dear friends

Since the management committee was constituted two years ago, we have seen increased participation form them in meeting their goals.

Last week on Thursday the health unit management committee(HUMC) of the clinic met together to discuss the work at the clinic. I was happy to join this meeting as I very rarely get the chance to meet them and share about our goals, challenges and achievements. The HUMC act as a vehicle for social participation in health systems.

The HUMC comprised of influential people within the community and representatives of more disadvantaged groups bring in the community’s voice on needs and priorities into the decision making for and functioning of health services. For example with the outbreak in Hepatitis B in the region the HUMC are able to share community needs and let the health team do their work.

I am greatly impressed that the team are very time conscious and very organised with the records of their meetings. The incharge of the clinic, Mathew who also doubles as the secretary for the meeting ensured that all the minutes were prepared before the meeting.

The team have the mandate to bring back feedback to the community and discuss with communities and health workers how to make improvements, in a cycle that again identifies new needs to feed into planning. They also support community outreach work, including patient follow-up at the grassroots level, mobilise people to use services and support facility communication with the public.

At the end of the meeting I was left with respect by the level of engagement of the members. We were all left with tasks before their next meeting. This not only makes me proud with this team, but the health workers also feel that they are not alone in the service of health provision.

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Jun 3, 2016
Most dangerous day in baby's life

By Ivy Akongo | Registered nurse

new born

“I was unconscious by the time my baby was born. I had been in labour for a very long time and both baby and I were tired,” narrates 17 year old Milly. I gave birth from home with the help of a traditional birth attendant.

It was her first delivery. And as she narrated her story I realised that there was more that she had not told me. I wondered where the baby was?

Suddenly, in walked another lady with something that looked like a baby wrapped up in thin dirty sheets, she handed it to Milly, and that is when it dawned on me that this might be the baby. I immediately thought of the worst, my heart started to race and I asked to see the condition of the baby. It was all covered with the thick white coating. It needed immediate attention.

“I assured Milly that her and her baby will be fine even without an incubator,” says nurse Ivy a registered nurse. On examination, Milly and her baby were transferred to the main hospital where she stayed for two weeks before she was discharged.

Uganda still grapples with a high number of premature babies, straining the health budget and retarding development, experts have disclosed. Of the 1.5 million children born in Uganda every year, 210,000 are born too soon, before 37 weeks of pregnancy, according to Dr. Gelasius Mukasa, the chairman of the national newborn steering committee.

Experts say a normal baby should spend 40 weeks in the womb. This implies that 14% of Ugandan babies are born before their due date, which results into death of some, while others grow up with ill-health.

According to Dr. Jessica Nsumba, the assistant commissioner for child health in the Ministry of Health, Uganda is ranked 13th out of 184 countries with the highest number of babies born prematurely. Uganda also ranks 11th in the number of deaths due to complications from pre-term birth. Statistics from the health ministry show that 38% of the 39,000 deaths occurring in the babies’ first 28 days are due to premature births. This is because premature babies’ lungs are under-developed which causes breathing difficulties among other health problems. “We have not done impact assessments. But we know that even the economy is affected because on the one hand, premature babies are vulnerable to enormous illnesses that are expensive to treat and this consumes money,” said Dr. Mukasa. “On the other hand, the mothers’ productivity goes down because they have to look after the sickly babies. Even if the baby survives, many end up with disabilities like blindness and won’t be so productive to the economy,” he added.

Premature births are linked to multiple pregnancies and bleeding from the vagina (antenatal haemorrhage). Another common trigger of premature birth is cervical incompetence, a condition in which a pregnant woman’s cervix begins to widen and thin before her pregnancy has reached due term.

Mukasa, however, attributed the problem in Uganda mainly to malaria and other infections in pregnant women. He also cited pre-eclampsia, a condition in which hypertension arises in pregnancy. It is associated with significant amounts of protein in the urine. Pre-eclampsia affects the placenta, and it can affect the mother’s kidney, liver, and brain. “The high death rates among new born babies lead to high infant and child mortality rates,” said Mukasa. “Unless we do something to prevent deaths among babies, other health indicators won’t be brought down significantly.”

At the Karin health facilities we advice mothers to practice good hygiene and to complete the required four antenatal care visits to the health centre for success in detecting premature births.

Lucky for Milly, she was transferred to another hospital immediately. We call upon you to support with the rolling out of the Kangaroo mother care method, it is the most effective and cheap way to help premature babies to grow.

The health centre needs to initiate the practice of the Kangaroo Mother care at our health facilities, not all mothers can make it to the regional hospital which is more than 10km away. The kangaroo mother care would enable health staff with the skills and knowledge to manage premature babies.

We thank you for the support and urge you to support the equipment of the new maternity centre, and the kangaroo kits to help premature babies survive.

For the life of these babies we ask you to use your mouse to click more, take five minutes to share our global giving page with your contacts and tell them why you decide to donate to us and why they should do the same.

Friends have you considered signing up for a monthly recurring donation today. Thank you for your support!

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