Maternal deaths in Kenya still too high, study shows

By KIBIWOTT KOROSS

Every two hours in Kenya, a woman dies during pregnancy or childbirth, a study has revealed.

The new study titled A Price Too High to Bear shows that maternal deaths are directly linked to neonatal mortality.

Among the 59 maternal deaths examined, the study shows that only 31 infants (52 per cent) survived delivery.  Of these, eight babies died in their first week of life and a similar number died over the next few weeks. In all, only 15 babies (25 per cent) survived.

As the United Nations Millennium Development Goals’ 2015 deadline approaches, these findings are critically important as countries like Kenya work to accelerate their progress in reducing preventable deaths.

While global maternal deaths were cut almost by half between 1990 and 2010, Kenya’s maternal mortality ratio declined only slightly during the same period, going from 400 per 100,000 births in 1990 to 360 per 100,000 births in 2010.

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The study was conducted from 2011 to 2013 by Family Care International (FCI), the International Centre for Research on Women (ICRW), and the Kemri-CDC Research and Public Health Collaboration.

“This new research puts hard numbers, as well as heart-breaking stories behind a message that maternal health advocates have known for years: when women die, children suffer and families fall apart, said Ann Starrs, president of FCI.

The new study was conducted in three sub-counties within Siaya County, which was curved out of the former Nyanza Province.

“Over more than a decade of surveying the population in this part of Siaya County, we have seen over and over again the devastating consequences of maternal death for children and families,” said Dr John Vulule, director of Kemri/CDC.

This research was conducted in co-operation with the Government of Kenya, with the financial support of the UK Government, the John D and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation, and the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health.

“This critically important research shows us, yet again, that the costs of maternal death are indeed far too high for the Kenyan people to bear,” said Dr Simon Mueke, head of the Reproductive and Maternal Health Services Division in Kenya’s Ministry of Health.