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“I do not want any other woman to die while giving birth because our Government has put in place interventions that save lives.”
Such is how Nyarai Mapuranga (35) of Manyore Village in Bonda in Manicaland Province narrates events that saved her life after experiencing a complicated pregnancy which bore her triplets seven months ago.
Mapuranga was only 32 weeks pregnant when she started experiencing complications with her pregnancy.
She was to trade her marital bed for the hospital one leaving behind her 85-year-old husband Douglas Kapungu at home.
“I was always sick and they did a scan to find out what was causing the excessive fatigue, swollen legs and dizziness.
“They said I had twins and had a sigh of relief because at least I knew what the problem was. But despite this, I continued to feel very sick and would sometimes collapse.
“The doctor recommended that I should stay at the hospital even if I was not due,” added Mapuranga.
At 34 weeks Mapuranga started convulsing and had to go into emergency labour.
The doctors were to discover that the scan had misled them — Mapuranga had triplets: two girls and one boy.
Hers was a happy ending as the triplets Tariro, Tatenda and Tinashe now seven months are healthy.
Each month, Mapuranga in the company of health worker Winnie Mandishona makes a two-and-half-hour walk to the hospital to collect baby formula for her triplets, she prefers calling miracle babies.
Her husband stays at home, as the distance is too long for him if they have no money to catch a bus.
Other women with threatening conditions such as high blood pressure are also admitted at the hospital.
Jestina Manhinga (17) said she was referred to Bonda Mission Hospital mothers waiting homes because her blood pressure was always high each time she visited their local clinic.
She is nine months pregnant and has been staying in the mothers waiting homes for two weeks.
“I will have a baby any day and will have adequate care if any complications arise.
“I stay too far from the hospital and my husband is in Norton,” she says.
At 3pm each day, Manhinga and 27 other women staying in the mothers waiting homes walk in a beeline to an office where a register is marked.
They also do the same in the morning.
Nurses at the hospital said this is to ensure all women stay at the hospital until when they have a safe delivery.
“Some women would leave the mother’s waiting homes without nurses’ authority and end up having complications when they give birth at home.
“We interviewed some who said they ran away because they missed and longed for their husbands, something we found disturbing.
“They would value their homes more than their life.
“We now ask them to come and have their names ticked twice a day to avert this.
“We are concerned about their health and will do anything to ensure they are safe,” said Bonda Mission Hospital sister-in-charge Loveness Pasuwa.
She said the mothers waiting homes had saved many lives in the area as pregnant women likely to have complications would stay at the hospital and be attended to as soon as they go into labour.
The women they attend to are some of the success stories of mothers waiting homes being used as a tool to avert pregnancy complications in rural areas countrywide.
Several other measures have been initiated to try to improve maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality.
The establishment of maternity waiting homes at hospitals countrywide where mothers can wait so that, when they go into labour or develop antenatal complications, they can be transferred to the hospital wards for management and safe delivery is one such measure.
Many rural women have been accessing them.
Africa has the highest maternal mortality rates in the world, with 48 percent of all global maternal deaths occurring in this region.
A woman in Zimbabwe has a one in 42 lifetime risk of dying in pregnancy or childbirth, and this risk is even higher in other African countries.
Thousands more women are injured while giving birth.
In rural areas, the outlook for women and girls is often even bleaker despite massive financial contributions to their families and society.
Many women in remote areas are unlikely to go to school, own property or be financially independent.
Deciding on issues with regards to their health becomes a mammoth task as they usually cannot make decisions on uptake of family planning services like pills, injections and condom use.
Despite having mothers waiting homes at most rural government hospitals, most women still cannot make a decision to go and spend two to three weeks staying there at the “expense” of serving their husbands.
In any case, when they decide to stay home and have complications, most of these rural women face transportation challenges.
According to the World Health Organisation, an estimated one-third fewer women worldwide are dying from complications during pregnancy and childbirth now than in 1990.
In sub-Saharan Africa in particular, maternal mortality has declined by 26 percent over the past two decades.
Greater political commitment towards reducing maternal deaths is slowly helping improve the situation.
The Campaign on Accelerated Reduction of Maternal Mortality (CARMMA), launched in 2009 with more than 30 African countries’ support, sets clear pathways to reach measurable goals around maternal health.
The Office of the United Nations Secretary-General’s “Every Woman Every Child” campaign and the “Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health” are two global initiatives that have each convened Government, civil society and corporate leaders to improve the lives of women and children.
The recent decline in maternal deaths in Africa and increase in political will are welcome signs that real and lasting progress can — and will — be a reality.
International organisation Women Deliver says worldwide more than 287 000 women die during pregnancy and childbirth every year.
That is approximately 800 women a day — a 47 percent decline from the levels in 1990. Despite this decline, 99 percent of maternal deaths occur in developing countries.
Fully 42 percent of all pregnancies everywhere experience a complication. In 15 percent of all pregnancies, the complications are life-threatening.
Women Deliver adds that most maternal deaths occur just before, during, or just after delivery, often from complications that cannot be predicted and are difficult to prevent.
Haemorrhage remains the leading cause of maternal death followed closely by sepsis, obstructed labour, hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and complications from unsafe abortion.
“For every woman who dies, approximately 20 more experience infection, disability, or injuries.
“Most maternal deaths and morbidity can be prevented when births are attended by skilled health professionals,” adds Women Deliver.
It says survival rates depend upon the distance and time a woman must travel to get skilled emergency medical care.
The “three delays” raise mortality rates:
The first delay is on seeking care. Women may have to get permission from family males, or may not recognise the emergency, or may fear hospital practices.
The second delay is in arriving at an emergency care facility: transportation may be unavailable or unaffordable or take too long.
And the third delay arises in receiving care from providers: richer patients or males may be seen first; facilities may lack staff, equipment or supplies; or care may be unaffordable.
Because of different levels of investment in women’s needs, huge disparities exist in the lifetime risks of maternal death for women in rich and poor countries, and between the rich and poor in all countries.
Women Deliver points out that the poorer the household, the lack of access to skilled birth attendants during pregnancy, and the lower the educational attainment, the greater the risk of maternal death.
Progress across the targets of MDG 5 (Improve Maternal Health) has not been uniform.
Major challenges and constraints still exist in order to accelerate progress towards meeting MDG 5.
With the Zimbabwean Government trying its best to avoid maternal deaths it is up to rural women to take up initiatives that have been put in place to protect them.
Then we will all have success stories such as Mapuranga and her triplets.
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