Maternal Health

Burundi

Every maternal death is unacceptable and avoidable

It’s a tragic fact that every day 1,000 women still die in childbirth or from pregnancy related complications. This number remains too high, especially when the vast majority of these deaths are easily preventable by having skilled clinicians, drugs and the necessary equipment in the places where they are needed most.

Maternal death is an avoidable crisis that deserves your attention.

save a life

Maternal Health

Experience shows us that at least 15 percent of all pregnant women worldwide encounter a life-threatening complication. In a conflict or a crisis, pregnant women are even more vulnerable because health services have collapsed, are inadequate or non-existent. But these women need access to quality emergency obstetric care whether they live in a conflict zone, in a refugee camp or under plastic sheeting after a devastating earthquake.

In fact, they need the same help that all pregnant women facing a complication need: access to appropriate medical assistance – skilled medical staff, drugs and equipment – to save their life and the life of their baby. Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) makes it a priority to provide life-saving, emergency obstetric care in both acute and chronic humanitarian crises. In the organisation’s emergency activities, teams strive to address the five main causes of maternal death: haemorrhage, sepsis, unsafe abortion, hypertensive disorders and obstructed labour.

The provision of emergency obstetric care is at the forefront of MSF’s work in sexual and reproductive health. Additional medical care provided to women by MSF includes antenataland postnatal care, family planning, assistance to sexual violence survivors, fistula treatment, post-abortion care, and prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

Conflict, epidemics, natural disasters, or the complete breakdown of a country’s health system are crises faced by MSF’s millions of patients around the world every day.

But a maternal death: that’s the avoidable crisis.

Press Release - 19 November 2012:
Drastic Maternal Mortality Reduction Possible by Enabling Access to Emergency Obstetric Care

 

VOICES FROM THE FRONTLINE: MSF HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONAL TESTIMONIES

Katie Hutchinson, midwife, Agok, Sudan
Sudan

“It’s just horrific that so many women are still dying in this country, especially because there are simple procedures that can be done to prevent maternal mortality both in pregnancy and delivery. Access to life-saving surgery is extremely important for these women, and MSF is now providing this in Agok. During delivery there are some huge risks that women face here if they are not in the hospital.But we can also do things that are not so difficult, and that really can save women’s lives.

Every single week in maternity, we save somebody’s life. It’s an amazing thing to do, but it also makes me a little upset that it’s not a difficult thing to do.Women in South Sudan, as everywhere, should have the opportunity to have a safe delivery. We haven’t had a maternal death since I’ve been here, and that is certainly my nightmare. A maternal death is not acceptable, and I hope it will stay like that. It’s also important to me that you know that the joy of giving birth to a healthy child is Universal”.

Dr Anne Marie Pegg, medical referent, Papua
Papua New Guinea

“Pauline arrived at the hospital late in the afternoon. It had been over an hour’s drive on the back of a motorcycle taxi. She had already been in labour for over 24 hours.This was her fourth pregnancy – she had had three previous caesarean sections, but none of those babies were delivered alive. During her antenatal visits, she had been strongly counselled to make her way to the hospital at the onset of labour.Her labour had started early in the morning. Knowing how important it was to get to the hospital, she started her search for a way to make the trip.

This wasn’t easy – she needed to find someone with a motorcycle who could take her. No small task in an area without mobile phone coverage, and where motorised forms of transport are not widespread. After an entire day and night of searching, she found someone. She was reassured by the movements of the baby within. On arriving at the hospital, she was quickly assessed by the midwife, who then notified the doctor on call. Well aware that a caesarean section was necessary, the surgical team was summoned. Within an hour, Pauline’s baby daughter was born, pink and screaming, into the world.”

Janet Fields, midwife, South Sudan
South Sudan

“A mother came in for what we assumed was a normal delivery. She had a quick labour and delivery and within 30 seconds of the delivery of the placenta, she started bleeding. We had already given her oxytocin, a drug which helps with bleeding, but as the bleeding didn’t stop, we immediately had to give her another medication in her leg, and also start an intravenous line on her. We also did a lot of uterine massage. It took a long time for the bleeding to stop, but eventually it did.

The thing that is scary about that story is that this woman would most certainly have died in the village. This woman has four other children to take care of. Because she was here, her life was saved.”

Read MSF report to learn about the state of maternal health around the world