Government says fifty one women in eastern province died due to pregnancy related complications from January to June , 2015.
Eastern Province Permanent Secretary Chanda Kasolo who disclosed this in Chipata today attributed this to hemorrhages or loss of blood due to excessive bleeding during and after delivery.
Mr Kasolo further said the number of women dying out of pregnancy is worrying for the region hence the need for concerted efforts to reduce the maternal deaths.
“No Woman should die while giving life, therefore this challenge cannot be handled by Ministry of health alone but all of us must be involved to save lives of mothers and children,” he added.
He was speaking at Epidemic Preparedness, Prevention, Control and management Meeting held at Luangwa lodge.
He however said the region has an objective on maternal health which is to reduce maternal deaths by 50 percent from 157/100,000 in 2012 to 78/100,000 live births by December 2015.
The PS further said pregnant women should be encouraged to deliver from health facilities as opposed to delivering at home and also that they go for early antenatal care services so that problems related to pregnancy are detected early.
..even only one maternal death is one too many……Chief medical officer for eastern province and minister of health should be thinking of tendering in their resignation letters….
I read the article in the morning and was hoping to see more bloggers making meaningful contributions but was shocked to find only one comment.That really sums up what really interests you Zambians.You just don’t care.51 is not just a number.It represents lives of Zambian women who died from preventable causes.Those women had families.Some left children and some of those children will grow up without the love and care of a mother.
51 is just for Eastern province,what about the rest Zambia?Does the pf govt really care?Zambians how long are you going to keep silent?
Losing 51 women in 6 months in one province as a result of labour crelated issues is a very big loss to a country with only 13 million people. It is sad that 51 years after indedependence such things should be happening. It is a symptom of poor leadership politically and also in terms of health leadership. How else can one explain such a tragedy? I agree with the previous blogger that even one death is too much for a small country. We need, as a people, to unite against such developmemnt. We need to demand better quality health services as close to the people as possible. And when are the so called health posts going to start functioning? i have felt very bad. Those women could have been my wife, my sister or even my daughter and it doesn’t matter where the deaths occured, i feel for…