Giu Dennis
Activists demonstrating about Maternal Mortality
As things stands at the moment, about 16 lives are reportedly being lost daily by mothers in the process of child birth. It’s completely unacceptable that mothers should be allowed to continue to die just like that in 21st century. The ignominy that comes with it is that people, including those in positions of responsibilities, continue to carry on with their daily routines as if everything is perfectly well.
When you add up the figures, it’s a bizarre thing. 16 lives a day translates into 480 lives in a month, or 5,760 lives in a year. Do you know how much it comes to in 10 years? It’s a whooping 57,600 lives being lost to a largely preventable death. If that isn’t the equivalence of genocide I don’t know what it is. And these are not terrorists dying in such large numbers. These are mothers who are bringing lives in the universe. What should have been their happiest and proud moments in life thus become their reason for premature death.
The pre-disposing factors to these high death rates include the generally “sick” medical service systems in the country characterized by insufficient medical supplies, lack of necessary equipments, and understaffing in terms of numerical strength and qualifications. Most mothers have lost lives due to negligence of nurses and other medical cadres. Many more have probably lost their lives because drugs meant to treat their maladies had been pilfered by unscrupulous medics. It’s a shame that a few years ago drugs would expire at national Medical Stores yet such drugs were badly needed by medical units across the country.
The Presidential Health Monitoring unit continues to unearth a high rate of drug theft in public hospitals and health units. This implies even the already meager quantities of drugs being supplies of drugs is being stolen. It is embarrassing that the local leaders are not playing a role in monitoring medical logistics in their areas of responsibility. All local councils have a designated Secretary for Health Affairs.
A similarly high number of women, especially young adolescents are equally losing their lives through unsafe abortions. The abortion issue is a rather straight forward problem to solve. Adjustments in the legislations regarding abortions could save us these lives. Currently medics are turning away ladies who go to seek safe abortion services. Even those who get complications in the process of abortions can’t get immediate medical attention in time when they are rushed to medical centers. Instead, medics would first seek intervention of the police. Consequently, many ladies who get post-abortion complications such as abdominal bleeding refrain from seeking medical attention out of fear of facing criminal charges.
These and many other health predicaments women find themselves into require the attention of all echelons of leadership. The primary goal of leadership of any sort is to strive for the betterment of the subjects. How much exactly are our different leaders to doing to solve these avoidable deaths? When we say leadership we shouldn’t narrowly focus on political leaders. All leaders such as Religious leaders and Traditional Leaders should take up these issues seriously. In fact even leaders of witch-doctors have a role to play.
If the leaders are not taking the desired course of action, citizens ought to wake up from their slumber and demand their leaders to act appropriately. Since leaders hold these public positions on behalf of citizens, citizens can and should vigilantly compel leaders to act responsibly. Politicians are not supposed to be regarded as authoritative bosses. They are servants who should execute their duties in the interests of citizens.
If for some reasons citizens think it is not in their best interest to purchase expensive vehicle for leaders at the expense of drugs for health centers, they should make leaders aware of their disappointments. Organized citizens can reassert their authority and force out any leader who wants to be a boss rather than a servant. While Uganda is a poor country, when adequate pressure is exerted on the politburo, some good can be done.
Taking a look at expenditure trends, it’s clear resources can be made available if there is political will. For example MPs didn’t expect to receive UGX 100 millions for “fuel refund” in 2015. Their monthly pay already caters for mileage. In 2010, they didn’t expect to receive money for “monitoring NAADs programmes” but nonetheless the money was available on demand. This infers that even from the perspective of Uganda’s deficit budget where projected expenditure is often more than the available resource envelope, somehow money can still be made available to save lives.
The maternal mortality issue can’t be settled in isolation from other problems affecting health care delivery systems in the country. Issue such as procurement of the right amounts of drugs and sundries, procurement, supply and maintenance of appropriate medical equipments, as well as staffing and staff motivation are all salient factors worth addressing. Motivation and professional ethics are even serious.
With a concerted efforts by all parties; political leaders, medical professionals and citizens, the large numbers of mothers perishing in Child birth can be substantially reversed. A more holistic approach should entail improvement of household incomes, as a grand majority of the mothers dying in child birth are those from the low-income bracket.
OWACHGIU D 
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