Globally, 94% of all maternal deaths occur in low and lower middle-income countries, yet most of these deaths could have been prevented (WHO).
In Malawi, approximately 70% of pregnant women face issues in accessing maternal health services, whilst many women have to walk up to 9 km to reach a clinic, and often suffer from birthing complications due to the limited resources and support available during their labour.
This month, for every £3 you donate to our maternal care programmes, we will increase this by a further £1 through a match funded grant.
The Malawi Maternity Project in Action
Our work in the last year:
- 74,791 patients treated
- 272 safe births conducted
- 491 pregnant women received antenatal and postnatal care
We have been working with partners in Malawi over the past five years to ensure improved maternal healthcare in the final stages of pregnancy via strengthening numerous maternity facilities and providing local midwives / healthcare workers. Now, our focus centres on improving the existing quality of healthcare that pregnant women and newborn children receive at six of these facilities by rigorously training healthcare professionals (midwives and nurse technicians serving in rural areas) including both learning-based training days and hands-on practical training in clinics. The project will be delivered by a combination of local and international faculty who will provide mentorship and continued support.
In addition, we are continuing the development of our Ambu Bike project to improve the access patients living in rural areas have to healthcare facilities for both check-ups and urgent needs. This costs only £80 per month to run, with an average response time for patients of 20 minutes.
Felicity’s Story
During Felicity’s first pregnancy, the closest available antenatal clinic was only accessible by foot, a number of kilometres away. One night, there was a sudden onset of labour, yet the cost of hiring a motor vehicle to travel to the hospital was unaffordable. The only option was to walk. When Felicity was a few kilometres away from the hospital, it started raining and Felicity’s condition worsened whilst her labour pains grew stronger, so she decided to stop and rest. A few hours later, Felicity gave birth to a premature baby and rushed to the hospital with her husband to receive postnatal care. Unfortunately, upon arriving at the hospital, the baby was found to be excessively cold due to the heavy rains and despite the doctors’ best efforts, they were unable to resuscitate her child.
“Years later, exciting news spread through the village about the introduction of a maternity clinic at Somba. During my second pregnancy, I started attending the antenatal clinic there and one evening, when labour started, the nurses rushed me into the labour ward and I progressed through to delivery, giving birth to a live full-term infant without any complications. As I am reporting this, I am pregnant once again, and attending antenatal appointments here at Somba.”
If you are currently observing Ramadan this month, visit our dedicated landing page, distribute your donations automatically over the last ten nights of the month (Zakat eligible), or donate your Zakat to our Most in Need fund today.
