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High rates of maternal mortality and limited access to reproductive health facilities remain cause for concern in Zimbabwe as lives are needlessly lost daily. Government must protect its citizens from such dangers. This is a fight we cannot afford to lose and we must all pull in one direction to make things better. Sad stories of women dying while giving birth or losing their newborns have become commonplace, particularly in rural areas.
This is certainly not news, but it demands real action. The state of maternal health in Zimbabwe is disappointing, to say the least.
The maternal mortality rate, according to the 2012 National Census Report, was 525 per 100 000 live births.
Child mortality rates were pegged at 24 per 1 000 live births while the under-five mortality rate was at 84 per 1 000 live births.
The above statistics should spur us into overdrive. No mother wants to lose a child at birth, and conversely, no child wants to hear that their mother died while giving them life.
In rural areas, pregnant women walk long distances to primary health centres where proper care is a foreign language.
And after delivery women are hastily discharged to make room for others.
It is an untenable scenario: one that goes against the value of human dignity and, more importantly, the respect that we should accord to mothers. Zimbabwe is not alone in having such a dire situation, but that is merely cold comfort.
In The Herald yesterday, we quoted Women Affairs, Gender and Community Development Minister Oppah Muchinguri lamenting lack of funds for programmes to reduce maternal mortality and to increase access to reproductive healthcare.
She has every reason to be both angry and worried. Zimbabwe is experiencing liquidity challenges that have compromised Government’s ability to undertake health projects. The situation has been worsened by illegal Western sanctions and internal corruption.
The global economic recession has also compromised the ability of aid agencies to chip in with funding.
Although Government and its partners such as UNFPA, Unicef and the Japanese Embassy have injected funds into the construction of maternity facilities in remote areas, provision of blood coupons and ambulances, among others, fall short of demand.
Government’s commitment to reducing the maternal mortality rate through the Campaign on Accelerated Reduction of Maternal Mortality in Africa in 2010 has also not yielded much. The board that was appointed back then was expected to raise US$716 million between 2010 and 2013, but to date only US$1 million has come through. And even then, we are not clear on what that money has been used for.
Over the years, other interventions have included the support of some rural health centres through the Health Transition Fund and the Results Based Financing for Health.
With a few months left before the 2015 MDG deadline, governments and stakeholders across the globe are worried that goal number five will not be achieved.
But somehow Zimbabwe does not seem sufficiently concerned about this.
Prioritising the health of girls and women is of paramount importance. Our combined energies need to be directed towards raising funds to breathe life into our health sector, particularly the maternal health sub-sector.
There is need for Government and all stakeholders to deliver on the promises made and make the country’s maternal and reproductive health system safe for our precious mothers and children.
Online Reporter