By Martha Mboma
Few passed years, maternal death was a big problem in the most people living in Iringa town, this happened due to different problems such as severe bleeding during giving birth, anemia and eclampsia. Therefore, these problems led to both, mother and child or only mother be able to die and leave a child alone.
However, now the number of victims of maternal death has declined due to some efforts made by doctors, nurses and health institutions by giving out education and seminars to women concerning women health. This has helped to reduce the problem.
The number of victims of maternal death in 2009 has been reduced compared two years before. Speaking to Tumaini Star miss Anna Mwakipesile who is the Maternity Health Coordinator of Iringa Municipal, said “ in 2009 there were 32 victims of maternal death, and this caused by different problems, 9 of them died due to postpartum hemorrhage( PHP), 6 due to sepsis, other 6 due to obstructed labor, 5 due to abortion, 2 due to malaria, 1 due to anemia,1 due to ante partum hemorrhage(APH), 1 due to eclampsia and the last 4 due to thromboebolion, abruption placenta and refractory response to treatments”.
Before these efforts, the victims in Iringa were many because there was an insufficient education about women health and most of them were not attending clinics for check up. But, now a number has reduced due to the fact that doctors, nurses and health institutions have been played a great role in educating women health.
Eclampsia was a mostly causative agent of maternal death in Iringa. This relates to high blood pressure during pregnancy. However, now some efforts have been made to reduce the problem, of course the side efforts are performing better and they are likely to help to reduce the problem.
Another problem was lack of enough hospitals and dispensaries near people’s residents. This problem caused most of the pregnant women unable to get the clinical services. Therefore now the problem has been reduced due to the increase in hospitals and dispensaries so that most of the people are well accessible to clinical and health services.
Anemia was another reason for maternal death, this problem happens because most of the women did not get proper diets during pregnant period. They do not get things like fruits and vegetables which help to increase the blood to a reasonable level. This is helpful to women for the duration of giving birth in case of severe bleeding while it can be compensated.
She further concluded that “Women must know the importance of attending hospitals from their early stage of their pregnancy till the end. This will help them to avoid problems, since the problems may be dangerous to them and their unborn children. thus this will be very helpful to reduce the level of maternal death in Iringa
