{UAH} IT IS THE HOSPITALS, NOT MEN KILLING PREGNANT WOMEN

It is the hospitals, not men killing pregnant women

By Edward Mulindwa

Posted Friday, August 23 2013 at 01:00

In Summary

When men get women pregnant, the government needs to do its job of providing efficient hospitals for those women to deliver their babies.

With great disappointment, I read the article by Mr Kakaire Ayub Kirunda (To my fellow men; it’s not the government impregnating our women) published in the Daily Monitor of August 14 ). There are some fundamental facts that Kirunda failed to put into account, before he drafted the article to state that it is not the government impregnating our women. I must start with registering a simple fact that pregnancy occurs between two people and those two people hold the primary responsibility of making sure that the baby and mother are safe up to delivery time. And they do that by making sure the mother gets routine visit to a medical location for all the necessary checkups and follow ups.

When you go back into Uganda’s medical history, the country had a very good record of maternal care. Because the government invested heavily in public health, expectant mothers were feeding well, which made them and their babies healthy. All the buildings you see in Uganda called “Community Centre” today, were actually not built for “Bakayimbira” for Sunday shows; they were built for parents, especially pregnant mothers, to get educated on maternal issues, including nutrition as well as birth control.

Through these systems, mothers-to-be were checked regularly right from community level to understand their ability and disability in having a baby, and the reports from the checkups were used by hospitals in preparation of the child birth. The government also invested in training medical assistants nationwide, especially specialising in child birth. As a result, the country had very many medical assistants taking care of healthy mothers-to-be - because the parents visit health centres on a regular basis during the pregnancy period.

The moment the current government dropped the responsibility of public health networks in villages, mothers-to-be actually show up to deliver babies when the medical sector does not have a good understanding of what the health needs of these mothers are. The rate at which Ugandan women are dying while giving birth is frightening and unacceptable.

Which brings me to my second point. The Movement government has survived this long because Ugandans took over its responsibility. When did the Ugandan government last import a bus? Ugandans import them! When did the government last import cars to be used as taxis? Ugandans import them! When did this government last import farm machinery? Ugandans import them! Much of the machinery and equipment needed in daily lives of Ugandans is actually imported by Ugandans privately. And in exchange, the government has dropped its responsibility of running the State for we do its job.

With that back ground, I find it very troubling that Kirunda today is demanding that men get the finances ready to pay every Tom and Dick to enable their wives to reach the hospital and give birth. I see two problems with this kind of reasoning. This government has lived this long due organisations like MANIFEST that Kirunda mentioned in his article because the organisations do the government’s work, yet the problem of Ugandan women is actually not failing to reach hospitals.

Most pregnant women in Uganda actually die in government hospitals. When a pregnant woman dies in Mulago Hospital, remember that woman has dragged herself from her home and has arrived in a hospital - a national referral hospital for that matter, and it is in that hospital where she has failed to get treatment. Kirunda is worried about the women that fail to arrive at the hospital, but if you have a pregnant wife and you hear a woman has died in a hospital due to negligence, lack of proper facilities or medical personnel, would you save money to take your wife to the same hospital?

The problem with Uganda’s healthcare is big and we cannot fix it in one day. My view is that given the poor services in the hospitals, we should not even be debating how to get pregnant women to hospitals. Rather, we should start by fixing the hospitals to be able to take good care of mothers. If we are to solve the problem of maternal and child mortality, we need to clean up the mess in the hospitals before we encourage anyone to show up in these ailing facilities.

In Masaka Hospital, for instance, some patients sleep on dry banana leaves. I was in Mulago Hospital and patients fetch their own water. In some hospitals, patients are chased from wards by snakes. It is, therefore, wrong to narrow down the issues of maternal health and delivery-related complications to men not saving to take their wives to hospitals!

That is a weak link in a huge chain. Organisations like MANIFEST should camp in government hospitals and Ministry of Health offices instead of going to villages to push more pregnant women into hospitals, for the hospitals are the killers. The government must change the hospitals from infection/killing centres to healing centres sir.

When men get women pregnant, the government needs to do its job of providing efficient hospitals for those women to deliver their babies.

Mulindwa@look.ca

 

 

           Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni and Dr. Kiiza Besigye Uganda is in anarchy"
           Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni na Dk. Kiiza Besigye Uganda ni katika machafuko"