A Malawian woman dies every hour during childbirth or complications during the process, the country’s health minister said on Monday, adding that the situation is ”tragic and obscene”.
”A pregnant mother dies every hour in Malawi during childbirth or due to complications during childbirth. This is tragic and obscene. There must be something we are doing wrong,” Minister of Health Hetherwick Ntaba said.
He said the maternal death rate in Malawi, one of the world’s poorest countries, is now 1 800 per 100 000 live births, climbing from 620 two decades ago and 1 120 in 2000.
The minister said Malawi, a peaceful and stable country, has the third-highest maternal mortality rate after Sierra Leone and Afghanistan, both emerging from brutal and protracted wars.
Women comprise 52% of the population in Malawi, where 60% of the estimated 12-million live below the poverty line of less than $1 a day. The country has about 16 000 hospital beds.
Ntaba attributed the high mortality rates to unsafe abortions, lack of emergency facilities and patients not receiving professional treatment due to a brain drain that has ”reached a crisis point”.
Up to 120 registered nurses migrate to Britain and the United States every year.
Donors such as Britain, Norway and Sweden have launched a programme to reverse Malawi’s flight of medical personnel by providing aid to double the salaries of medical workers to $200 a month. — Sapa-AFP