This is the first in a series of posts on the new maternal
health initiative Saving Mothers Giving Life and my thoughts on some of the
common barriers women face in receiving quality healthcare. I’ll also talk about possible solutions
to eventually eliminating those barriers.
A Little Background
Last October, I started working with CIDRZ (Centre for
Infectious Disease Research in Zambia), on implementing the Global Health
Initiative project "Saving Mothers, Giving Life." The main goal of the project is to
reduce maternal and infant mortality by 50% in a year. Seeing as it is a very ambitious goal local
and global stakeholders are collaborating on a multi-faceted strategy to not
only promote women coming in to health facilities to deliver but to also improve
the quality of life-saving health services those women receive. I believe a key factor in this project
is documenting the barriers to healthcare so that people across the globe see
these struggles.
My specific duties at CIDRZ change throughout the day but are focused on setting up a system for program development, monitoring and evaluation of Emergency Obstetric and Neonatal Care (EmONC). The CIDRZ team (known as AMAI) recently conducted assessments at all health facilities in Nyimba and Lundazi districts in Zambia to assess the medicine, equipment and supplies each facility had, along with community involvement, to determine the best approach for not only reducing maternal and neonatal mortality but also improving the healthcare system as a whole. It's a frustrating and extremely rewarding project.
The team I was a part of spent about 10 days in December doing
assessments at 18 sites in Lundazi district. Each survey took about an hour and a half to two hours
depending on different circumstances (like the clinic staff assisting in a
delivery or Under 5 clinic). We
had serious concerns about getting to some of the sites in one day due to
distance (some sites were about 200K from the main town) and woke up at 2:30am
and 3am to make it to those sites in time. You’re probably thinking, “that’s insane.” The alternative
choice would have been to sleep in the park. As I often say here, death by a hippo or elephant crushing
me is not on my bucket list.
After completing the survey, I spent a lot of time reflecting
on the information the health workers told us and on the images these
facilities left in my mind. I
noticed some of the most common barriers to care are:
- General Infrastructure and Environmental Factors
- Equipment, Supplies and Facility Infrastructure
- Training
- Communication/Outreach
“Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are
you doing for others?'”
-Martin Luther King Jr.
