The Sunday Mail
Debra Matabvu
The number of Zimbabweans dying while giving birth has decreased from 960 to 614 per 100 000 due to increased midwife training and massive Government programmes that have helped reduce mother-to-child HIV transmission. The Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) Report which is compiled by the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZimStats) revealed the latest figure.
Health and Child Care Minister Dr David Parirenyatwa said the country’s low HIV prevalence rate also contributed to the decline.
“These good trends can be attributed to the intense interventions that have been introduced by the Government. Programmes such as Option B plus and extensive training of midwives have helped reduce maternal mortality rate in the country.
“Further, HIV prevalence has gone down. This has helped as well.”
Dr Parirenyatwa said his ministry would continue implementing policies that promote women and children’s health.
The Report describes maternal mortality as the number of deaths that occur during pregnancy, childbirth or within two months after delivery or termination of pregnancy.
Zimbabwe’s maternal mortality ratio had risen from 283 per 100 000 in 1994 to 960 per 100 000 in 2009, which is three times higher than the world average.
The ministry’s Director of Family Health Care, Dr Bernard Madzima, said: “The Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey looks at a period going back as far as five to seven years. So, these figures also take into account what happened during the period of the economic meltdown.
“Our routine Health Information System DHIS2 also shows that maternal deaths have drastically gone down.
“This is attributed to addressing the three delays associated with maternal deaths; that is delay in deciding to seek treatment, delay in reaching the health facility and delay in getting the appropriate assistance once at the health facility.
“There are various programmes in place to address these, for example, encouraging women to attend antenatal care, availability of ambulances, maternity waiting homes, availability of skilled health workers, blood for transfusion and all the necessary commodities.”
University of Zimbabwe gynaecology lecturer Professor Stephen Munjanja weighed in: “Even though it is still high, it is good that the drop has happened at a time when Zimbabwe is facing socio-economic hardships. Maternal Mortality Ratio is very sensitive to socio-economic situations and it takes a lot to bring it down.”
Despite the drop, Zimbabwe, like its regional counterparts, is unlikely to reach Millennium Development Goal Number Five which seeks to reduce maternal mortality ratio to 38 per 100 000 live deaths by 2015.
Zimbabwe seeks to reduce maternal mortality ratio by 75 percent by 2015.
