• KRCS ran a six-month cash for health in emergency programme.
• Some 915 women were given Sh2,000 monthly stipend to take care of their health costs in hospitals.
Image: COURTESY
Selina Nariwoi gave birth in a health facility for the first time six months ago, even though her home is only a few metres from a local Rekeke dispensary.
Her mother had helped her deliver three other children at home, a normal practice in Mkunguni village, Taita Taveta, where she lives. One of the three died.
“My mother is a midwife, therefore, I saw no need of going to the hospital for delivery," she said.
Nariwoi, a single mother, also said she did not have money to spend at the hospital as the cash she got from the odd jobs she does was barely enough to feed her children.
“At the hospital there are some registration fees, drug charges and you also need to buy a clinic book. I cannot afford that,” she said.
Though the government introduced free maternity services in public hospitals, people from the remote areas of the county continue to shun hospitals.
The situation is so dire that a dispensary that has been running for almost 17 years recorded its first delivery last October after an intervention programme by Kenya Red Cross Society.
Funded by the British Red Cross, the programme involves giving Sh2,000 per month to 915 pregnant and lactating women. This is aimed at encouraging them to go to hospital for delivery and antenatal and prenatal care. The money is paid via M-Pesa for six months.
“When Ndilidau dispensary in Matta ward recorded its first delivery since inception, the workers had reason to celebrate,” said Fredrick Orimba of the KRCS.
KRCS has been running a ‘cash for health in emergency’ programme funded by the British Red Cross in the county.
The programme covers three wards—Mahoo, Challa and Matta—all of which had recorded the lowest hospital deliveries, immunisation and ante-natal care rates in the county.
“We identified a pregnant or lactating woman in 915 households and gave them a monthly stipend of Sh2,000. This was to cater for their health needs though we did not restrict how they spent the cash,” Orimba said.
Following the launch of the programme, Nariwoi gave birth to her last born in a health facility. Her firstborn daughter, 17, also delivered her first child at a hospital.
“We are both attending a post-natal clinic and are on schedule with the vaccination. I am able to buy food for all of us,” she said.
KRCS established that many women did not go to hospital because of cultural beliefs, poverty and inaccessibility of heath facilities.
“Some of the health facilities are too far away, so many people cannot access them. There is also a risk of encountering wild animals because the area is close to a game reserve," Orimba said.
KRCS also established through the programme that women from specific cultures who practise female genital mutilation had shifted to making the cut at infant stage.
“That is part of the reason some of the women prefer to deliver at home and avoid post-natal clinic,” Orimba said.
Taita Taveta assistant director of administration John Mwakima confirmed that home births are still rampant in the villages.
He also raised concerns of teenage pregnancy, stating that in Taveta subcounty alone, more than 170 girls became pregnant when schools were closed because of Covid-19.
Maternal and perinatal deaths remain major public health concerns globally, with more than 289,000 maternal deaths, 2.6 million stillbirths and 2.7 million neonatal deaths occurring each year.
In Kenya, the current maternal mortality ratio of 362 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, and the stillbirth rate of 23 deaths per 1,000 live births are far below the target of 147 maternal mortality per 100,000 live births and 12 stillbirths per 1,000 live births respectively.
In June 2013, Kenya declared maternity services free in all public health institutions, a move that makes access to quality maternal healthcare possible for all women.
Edited by F'Orieny