OH CRY PREGNANT MOTHERS OF ESWATINI

Eswatini has augmented its maternal mortality ratios in public health hospitals by almost 54 per cent within four years.

Between 2007 and 2011, institutional maternal death rate increased to 590 deaths of pregnant women per 100 000 births, as reported by United Nations agencies in the country. According to the World Health Organisation, maternal death is the death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and site of the pregnancy, from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management but not from accidental or incidental causes. The increase in the maternal mortality rate comes after government failed, for years, to prioritise health in the country, and thus reduce the deaths of women while pregnant or giving birth or after giving birth.

Health department statistics show that Eswatini’s maternal death ratios have been doubling each year since 1990. Maternal mortality figures are strong measures of how badly the country’s public system is doing. Almost all the maternal deaths in the country occurred due to unavailability or fewer health systems and resources than the country’s population. Eswatini has over the years seen a massive increase in HIV infections. This was not, however, countered by decisive government policy and action, especially in so far as spending on health facilities, especially focusing on women generally and pregnant women in particular, is concerned. These, buttressed by the well documented high levels of poverty and poor social systems, resulted in the death of many pregnant women.

It is worth noting that maternal deaths for HIV positive women is also, perhaps mostly, caused by non-pregnancy related infections such as tuberculosis, pneumonia and meningitis, that people living with HIV who are not on treatment are likely to develop. Thus, HIV positive women who are not on antiretroviral drugs and have poor nutrition usually develop AIDS symptoms. Taking their treatment without food, as is too often the case in Eswatini due to the well-known extreme levels of poverty, only makes things worse. The bodies of these women become weak and their immune systems compromised. The risks of contracting other infections like TB are then increased tremendously as their bodies are by then too weak to fight them.  

It is foreseen that maternal deaths are bound to increase in the immediate and midterm future due to lack of investment in public health hospitals and clinics. The public health system continues to be underfunded despite calls from the public for government to prioritise the health of the nation instead of unnecessary events. If more resources could be availed to tackle the causes of HIV, among other diseases, then the country could be in a position to reduce the number of women who die while giving life.

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