New mothers appreciated at Pumwani Maternity Hospital

By Chris Apollo.

The women who delivered at Pumwani Maternity Hospital as the world marked Mother’s Day on Sunday 8 May, got pampers, Lessos and sanitary towels as gifts from medical students from Nairobi University (UoN), CFC Stanbic bank and the Evans Kidero (EK) centre.

Stella Bosire, a medical student, led a delegation from the University of Nairobi (UoN). “Although the government is strongly addressing cases of maternal mortality, complications exist like still births recorded at delivery centers. The most affected are women in the rural areas, who find it hard to access maternal services due to few health centres that are [at distance].”

The state of poor infrastructure in parts of Kenya is blamed by health professionals as a challenging factor when it comes to accessing anti natal care and maternal services.

Dr Lazarus Kumba Omondi the medical superintendent at the Pumwani Maternity Hospital states as an exampl;,“in Nairobi, at least we can easily access the hospitals. But consider a woman in Isiolo, or any of the pastoral communities, who has to walk for 20 kilometres for health services. In most cases, they deliver on the way to hospital, as some of them resort to traditional birth attendants (TBAs).”

The medical superintendent says that although the government is discouraging TBAs services, this has continued in some areas because that is the only option to make deliveries in some areas. Personally Dr Omondi discourages women going to deliver at TBAs: “These people have no formal knowledge on safe deliveries. At some point the government resolved to train these TBAs, but stilI believes it is not worth the effort. You can train a form four leaver, but not an illiterate old woman.” Under staffing also remains a challenge doctors. Pumwani hospital records at least 200 births every day, out of which 170 are safe but about 20 have complications that may lead to deaths.

Johnson Muthoka, also a medical student, experienced 10 mothers delivering between 6am and 8am. Eight cases were safe births, two had complications, one case was caesarian and one a breach case.

His colleague on night call, Mariah Obino said there were 37 deliveries between 8pm to 8am. All mothers were in a stable condition after delivery. Three deliveries were caesarian section, one still birth (pre-clampsia) where the baby died inter uterine. However, she noted that staffing issues urgently need to be considered. “Currently, minus our support, there are only five nurses attending to the newborn cases, a ratio of 5:100. She adds that the hospital needs to buy more incubators, bag valve masks (BVM) and also improve on linen supply.

Other challenges at the maternity hospital, according to Dr Omondi, included the shortage of qualified professional personnel (such as doctors and nurses), shortages of drugs, political patronage, and bureaucracy in the supply process which affects the flow of essential services.

For mothers who deliver in health facilities but can not pay their fees and expenses, a waiver system should be effected so as not to infringe on the basic rights of the mothers to freely access hospitals for successful deliveries. The Pumwani Maternity Hospital has began a savings programme for financially stable mothers called “Changamka”, where expectant women can start saving early for the deliveries.

The voluntary gift giving exercise on international Mother’s Day was conducted in both government and private hospitals.This included Pumwani Maternity Hospital, Kenyatta National Hospital and Mbagathi Hospital, Nairobi West Hospital, Equator Meridian and St Marys Langata, a mission hospital. Coptic Hospital was very instrumental in the provision of their ambulance to Pumwani maternity hospital for 24 hours.