The worrying maternal health state in Lwengo district

Maternal health remains a staggering challenge, particularly in the developing world. In Uganda, mothers are dying at an alarming and increasing rate . Uganda’s Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) has consistently been one of the highest in the world with 368 deaths per 100,000 live births, according to the report from the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, 2021.

Majority of women have fallen victim to this but the women in rural Uganda face multiple barriers to accessing critical routine and lifesaving maternal health care. This is due to delays in deciding to seek care, delay in reaching health care because of transportation issues and poor infrastructure, and delay in receiving adequate and appropriate care.

As Joy For Humanity Uganda, having identified the need to extend modern, quality and affordable health services to our community members in Lwengo district, we had to mobilize funds through which we have been able to put the Joy For Humanity Health Centre in place but we identify lots of loopholes that need to be fixed as we move on.

Based on the current financial situation in Uganda, mother’s are having trouble accessing facilities for appropriate care and those that do, run to facilities when it’s late at times. This is evident as we referred one of the mothers that had come to our facility with a complication that needed to be worked on as soon as possible, well not having an ambulance yet at our facility, we requested them to hire a car to make the movements easier but they couldn’t afford and decided to use a motor bike to transport a mother who was already in labour and needed immediate care to a distance of about 45km. Such situations and many more are happening especially in the rural communities .

That’s why we need to join hands and create the change we want to see in our communities. Together we can impact and make a difference as we fight maternal mortality in Lwengo district. Feel free to reach out to us through our social media pages as Joy For Humanity Uganda for any contributions you would like to make towards this cause.