AFRICA/TANZANIA - Women in west Africa have little choice. Many would be mothers die due to preventable complications

Friday, 27 July 2007

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Dar Es Salaam (Agenzia Fides) - After Sierra Leone, Niger, Malawi and Angola Tanzania is the fifth country in Africa where pregnant women are at risk. According to World Bank statistics in Tanzania in 2000, for every 100,000 babies born alive 1,500 mothers died in pregnancy or at child birth. That year 21,000 died and the situation has not improved. The situation had worsened from a decade earlier, when the maternal mortality rate was 770 per 100,000 live births and about 8,700 women had died due to complications during pregnancy.
A 2005 government survey, gleaned from a door-to-door campaign, put the maternal mortality rate at 578 deaths out of every 100,000 live births, up from 529 in 1996. Under-resourced hospitals, a dearth of clinics in remote areas, poor transport and poverty are blamed for the preventable deaths of would-be mothers in Tanzania. In many cases, rural dwellers follow their communities' beliefs, seeking a traditional healer to deliver babies in a ‘‘natural’’ way using herbs and age-old methods. Qualified doctors or nurses took part in less than half of births (46 percent) in Tanzania between 2000 and 2004, according to World Bank statistics. Activists say an increase in public health spending may help reduce the death rate of pregnant women. An acute shortage of trained health care professionals has seriously compromised the level of hospital care.
“There is only one doctor for every 20,000 patients. More investment is healthcare is needed, in rural areas there is a shortage of funds, qualified personnel and clinics,” said the representative of Tanzania's White Ribbon Alliance comprising 50 NGOs which promote women's health.
In government priorities Tanzania President Jakaya Kikwete, has out maternal mortality at the same level with the fight against AIDS which affects 7% of the population and unemployment which affects one in ten Tanzanians. Recently the health minister David Mwakyusa said the government is committed to reducing the maternal mortality rate by 2010, a 265 deaths for every hundred babies born alive. He also promised better hospital treatment and equipment and better collaborate among clinics. (AP) (27/7/2007 Agenzia Fides; Righe:34; Parole:418)