In November, 2015, Chad Turner (Deputy Director, Maternal and Child Health Program at Vital Strategies) hopped in a small dual-engine propeller plane and travelled from Tanzania’s capital of Dar es Salaam to a small airport in Kigoma. In three days, Chad covered over 1,000 kilometers through the remote region, visiting nine health facilities supported by Vital Strategies.
Worldwide, 300,000 women die every year due to complications from pregnancy and childbirth. Many of these deaths are entirely preventable, arising from a shortage of trained medical professionals and a lack of access to healthcare facilities.
According to recently published data from WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA and The World Bank, Tanzania accounted for 3% of global maternal deaths in 2013. That’s despite a drop in its maternal mortality ratio of 55% between 1990 and 2013.
In 2008, Vital Strategies began a program to help alleviate the burden of maternal and neonatal mortality by implementing a state-of-the-art healthcare program. The goal of this program is to increase access to comprehensive emergency obstetric and neonatal care (CEmOnC), making it available locally to all delivering women.
The facility in Kakonko was indicative of what Chad would see throughout the region. There in the facility, a dozen women waited with their children at the Reproductive Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health (RMNCH) clinic. Many of the children were there to receive vaccines. The women sat in their brightly colored dresses, some nursing their babies, and others holding them in their arms. All were watching a TV that was set up and playing a video about family planning that Vital Strategies helped to put together with other NGOs and non-profits working in the region.
The success of this program goes far beyond new facilities and medical equipment. Time and again, the people Chad met with told him that what had been created was a community. The Maternal Health Program has worked to train mid-level healthcare workers in CEmONC to ensure women delivering even in the most remote regions have access to this and other lifesaving procedures. Once the province of only doctors, evidence has shown that using intensive training to allow “task-sharing” of some critical procedures – including C-Section – to non-doctors is safe and effective. And these individuals have helped nurture a culture of trust between patients and medical workers.
This trust has shown tremendous results. Since the program’s inception, there has been a 52% increase in the number of women using supported facilities overall; 45 medical assistants have been trained to do CEmONC; over 100,000 deliveries have been assisted; and over 10,000 c-sections have been performed.
Even more telling: as Chad and his colleagues reviewed the data, they found a larger than expected number of pregnant women showing up at their facilities. What this indicates is that women are travelling from outside a facility’s target region seeking care. This can sometimes be a long trip, but the quality of care we provide makes it worthwhile.