Mozambique: mothers’ waiting room an essential facility for rural births

By: Antonio Simao Matimbe,  World Vision

Many women have problems during pregnancy. It might be morning sickness or swollen feet or trouble sleeping. For some mothers the conditions they face are more serious and require medical attention. Getting treatment at the right time can be the difference between life and death. One family experienced both.

Assina Adriano was 37 weeks pregnant with her third child when she started to feel unwell. ‘I suddenly started to feel headache, tired and all my body was all hurting,’ recalls Assina. ‘I was afraid of malaria, and I decided to see the doctor in the health centre.’

A test confirmed that she had malaria. If she did not receive regular, specialist care, her baby could die. District medic Frederico Sabestião provides this assessment: ‘Malaria for pregnant women is a big risk for the baby because can be born underweight, children can be born premature, and these two factor can lead to the death of the child. This situation and others of mothers with high blood pressure, for instance, need special assistance.’

Assina lived 20 kilometres – a five-hour walk – from the health centre. Due to her illness and the distance, Assina was hospitalised for three weeks in a house set up to cater specifically for pregnant women. The house is called the Mothers’ Waiting Room and can care for four women at a time. ‘It was a wonderful surprise for me to be sent to the Mothers’ Waiting Room because I did not know of it,’ Assina recalls. ‘I felt much better being there because, beyond the distance, every day the medic passed through there to give me assistance. I was more confident that nothing could happen to my child.’

After three weeks Assina gave birth to a healthy baby girl. Assina was fortunate to have access to care during her pregnancy; her sister was not so lucky. Sadly, Assina shared her sister’s situation. ‘My older sister had a complicated delivery at home,’ she recalls. ‘Someone had to go running to the health centre to ask for the ambulance to take her to the hospital, but the help arrived late. She died with her children at home. If we had a Mothers’ Waiting Room, like now, maybe she could have gone there on time and she would be alive this time.’

Assina’s sister is just one of many rural woman and children who have lost their lives before reaching the health centre.

For local doctor Frederico, the Mothers’ Waiting Room is the difference between life and death.

‘Since we’ve had this waiting room operating [in] 2011, we have seen the number of mothers delivering babies in the health centre in the safe conditions increasing substantially,’ the doctor says.

In fact, every month the Mothers’ Waiting Room hosts about 20 mothers, and without it many of them would deliver away from the health centre. The health centre also recommends the evacuation of high-risk mothers to a better-equipped hospital 80 kilometres away.

Mothers and children in rural areas often have difficulty accessing essential health care and treatment. The Global Week of Action 2014 is seeking to highlight the inequity often experienced between mothers and children in cities and those in rural areas. Your support will help demonstrate to leaders that you want action to ensure that all children ‘Survive 5’.