Too late...

Increased maternal mortality is multi-factorial

 The photo shows a national newspaper article published earlier this year.  It discussed the many issues that may increase the risk of mothers dying associated with pregnancy and childbirth.

Sadly we experienced a local incident recently. Last Wednesday evening we had a tragedy where a mother in labour was brought to Kisiizi but was dead on arrival at the hospital at around 11pm.

The story behind this sad event is that she had had a previous Caesarean section in one of her nine previous pregnancies.  She went into labour in the village where she lived.  She was taken to a local drug shop / clinic we think at around 3pm and it seems that there was then a long delay before she was put in a vehicle to come here at her own request.


From the description given by the attendants, we suspect she developed a rupture of the uterus through the old scar.

This is the sort of patient who should always deliver in hospital. Most mothers want to deliver at home if possible, partly for cultural reasons, partly economic as it costs a lot in local terms to arrange transport as well as hospital costs, food etc.

One response in Kisiizi is the construction of the Mothers' Waiting Home sponsored by Kisiizi Partners.  This will allow mothers at risk to wait here so when they go into labour they can be moved to the Maternity Ward easily and quickly.
We are following up the case with the District Health Officer and will continue to try and improve health education of both public and community professionals to try and avoid such cases in the future.