Saumu Kenga is a proud mother of five children in Dida, a village in Kilifi county. She recently gave birth to her fifth child early this year in Dida dispensary, one of the few health facilities in the area.
She is among the many local mothers who have benefited from the introduction of maternity services at the dispensary.
Before then, most women used traditional birth attendants. “Traditional methods were the only form through which women would be able to give birth. My first four children have all been born by the traditional method,” she says.
Dida dispensary is a beneficiary of the Safaricom Foundation, which is equipping health facilities to offer maternity services.
Dida is located about 23km from Kilifi Town in a sparsely populated region. The foundation expanded the maternity wing
and erected a perimeter fence round the dispensary, and also renovated the staff quarters.
“We have seen an improvement of services as numbers of those giving birth at the facility has increased,” says Ann Rita Sebastian, the nursing officer at the facility.
The locals are largely farmers, hunters and gatherers. They currently farm, though in really small scale. They plant perennials like coconuts and cashew nuts which act as main cash crops.
Most of them live in mud-walled, makuti-thatched houses. Recently, iron sheets and brick structures have come up.
Herbalists and traditional midwives are still allowed to carry out their activities.
“We allow them to do their work as it was done in the old days but still supervise what they do,” says Mwabakari Tsuma, the area assistant chief.
He says some women fear delivering in government facilities where men are midwives. “This has never been a common practice to the people here hence the fear of a man doing a woman's work,” adds Mwabakari.
Saumu introduces us to Kadzo Kitunga, a herbalist and a traditional mid wife. “Kadzo has helped me deliver my first born and second born son and most people in the community deem her as a second mother to all our children,” says Saumu. Kadzo has been in the business for almost four decades now and locals consider her an expert.
Deliveries in the dispensaries have shot up tremendously since the expansion of the maternity unit and refurbishment of the dispensary.
“We have seen an increase in the number of deliveries from one or two in a month to 12 deliveries in a month, counting quarterly brings them to 37, and also an improvement for services as the dispensary now has 80 visits for both ante-natal and post-natal healthcare,” says Ann Rita, the nursing officer in charge.
Previously, the hospital used to send some of the patients away as the holding room could only hold one patient but it can now hold a few parents for even two days. The compound is also gated and fenced. The dispensary serves 18 villages of about 10,000 people, which strains the staff .
“Our aim is to be at par with the National Development Goals, which state that all mothers must have access to maternal health,” says Eunice Kibathi, the principal project officer at Safaricom Foundation.
Maternal mortality is an adverse outcome of many pregnancies. Miscarriages, induced abortions and other factors, are causes for more than 40 per cent of the pregnancies in developing countries to result in complications, illnesses, or permanent disability for the mother or child, according to the World Health Organisation.
About 80 per cent of maternal deaths are direct obstetric deaths. They result from obstetric complications like delayed labour.