adminevery 100 000 women (ZDHS). Those in greatest risk in Zimbabwe are women in the rural areas and adolescents.
So, what causes maternal deaths and what can be done to prevent this? Studies have shown that the major causes of maternal deaths come about as a result of preventable causes. 38 percent of the causes are due to severe bleeding and infections, and 16 percent due to fits and seizures (enclampsia) and obstructed labour.
Unintended pregnancy is a major contributing factor to maternal mortality, and the world’s greatest lamentation is that what has to be done to prevent this is widely known and understood.
It is accepted that the solution to this problem is through prevention by ensuring that pregnant women have access to prenatal, postpartum and postnatal medical care.
Moreover, unintended pregnancy can be avoided through the practice of family planning or the adoption of modern contraception methods. It is generally believed that without the use of contraceptives, the average woman would have 12 to 15 pregnancies in her lifetime but with serious possible risks to her health including cervical cancer and maternal death.
Delaying childbearing reduces the risk of death during childbirth, as such, the timing and spacing of children is crucial to a woman’s health. It should not be too soon or too late.
Too soon is below the age of 18 and too late is five years or more after a birth (recommended time is at least 24 months after the birth).
Men have a crucial part to play in supporting their partners in choosing suitable birth spacing methods and also through their pregnancies. An old adage contends that if you educate a woman you educate a nation; Population Services Zimbabwe (PSZ) building on that notion believes that if we empower women we empower our families and the nation at large.
PSZ has been in Zimbabwe for over 25 years providing family planning and sexual reproductive health services to over 200 000 couples every year.
Our aim is to complement the efforts of Government, through the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare and the Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council in achieving the fifth Millennium Development Goal through improving access to and widening available options or choices in family planning and sexual reproductive health services. In so doing we hope to play a part in the reduction of maternal mortality and morbidity in the country.
To respond to the health needs of the women in Zimbabwe, P SZ provides high quality affordable sexual reproductive health services through a network of three service delivery channels. These include a network of eight clinics in urban areas and nine outreach teams which operate in all the 10 provinces of Zimbabwe.
The third channel is a partnership with the private sector in the medical fraternity through the BlueStar Healthcare Network franchise, which means that people are now able to access family planning and sexual reproductive health services from their doctors and nearest surgeries, clinics or hospitals. Thus through all these service delivery channels, PSZ works to improve access to family planning by tackling the current barriers such as cost and accessibility.
All in all, women who can control their fertility, can avoid health related risks of frequent and unspaced births, they also bear healthy babies and are able to take care of their family.
We at PSZ stand with the women of Zimbabwe, and help them to assert their right to family planning and sexual reproductive health. You too can discover and learn more by calling PSZ toll free on 08080020; trained professionals are always waiting to talk to you.
Online Reporter