Midwives and Government Working Together To Provide Maternity Care To Women In Kilifi County | M4P in Health

Midwives and Government Working Together To Provide Maternity Care To Women In Kilifi County

April 15th, 2016
Centrine Musoliza
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In Kilifi County, along Kenya’s coast, 68% of the population lives below the poverty line. There is a high level of maternal and neo-natal mortality, partly attributable to poor access to affordable skilled assistance before, during or after delivery. 46.6% of women in Kilifi give birth at home.

With funds from UK aid, PSP4H is supporting a public private partnership between the Kilifi County Government and a newly established network of private midwives to improve access to affordable, skilled delivery services for low-income communities. They will work together to increase skilled delivery from the current sixty-nine percent (69%) to seventy-five percent (75%) by March 2017.

PSP4H is providing technical assistance to develop the network, deliver business skills training and undertaking a rapid assessment to establish clinical training needs, while the county government will conduct the delivery of the clinical training

Asha Wali Ahmed has been running her clinic in Maweni since 1986. She is delighted by the establishment of the midwife network “This will ensure that we are all up to date with new methods and learning. There are so many maternal deaths that we can prevent by working together.”

It’s not just maternity services that Asha provides at her clinic but also family planning. 25 year old Biijah Juma, a mother of two, has come for a contraceptive injection so that she has control over when she has another child.

Women like 30 year old mother-to-be Elinora Muye, are not only looking for affordable (often just 200/= for a consultation and 3,500/= for delivery), quality maternity services but services that are time efficient.

PSP4H is also supporting the establishment of a network brand and logo, as well as a marketing plan to increase awareness. The logo will be put on all partner clinics to help customers easily identify quality maternity services like those provided by Christine Kambi, the matron at Wananchi Maternity Clinic in Kilifi. The aim is to have all 60 registered clinics sign up to the network which could benefit an estimated 18,000 people monthly.

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