Advocacy group campaigns for respectful maternity care
The sign on the walls of Pirimiti Health Centre talks about the success of the centre in eliminating maternal deaths.
The numbers on the wall read that the centre had 7 843 households, with 1746 pregnant women 100 percent of whom had live births.
Evidently, the centre manages to provide respectful maternal care, a system of care being campaigned for by White Ribbon Alliance (WRA) on Safe Motherhood.
With 84 villages in its catchment area, Pirimiti has managed to set up reproductive health committees in each village which advocate for deliveries at health centres and ensure that pregnant women attend antenatal clinics during their pregnancy.
“In our village we are charged K1 500 if we are caught delivering at home or at a traditional birth attendants,” said one mother who had just delivered at the health centre.
She happily held her baby stating that she was given the best care she would have expected from the health personnel.
Luckily in the villages the role of the traditional health attendant has turned to that of an advocacy officer and she usually takes the women to antenatal classes or even escorts them to the health centre for delivery according to senior health Surveillance Officer Dunniel Mwangala.
According to White Ribbon Alliance the Charter on respectful maternity care gives women seven basic rights: the right to be free from harm and ill-treatment, the right to information, informed consent and refusal and respect for her choices and preferences, including the right to her choice of companionship during maternity care, whenever possible; the right to privacy and confidentiality; the right to be treated with dignity and respect; the right to equality, freedom from discrimination, and equitable care; the right to healthcare and to the highest attainable level of health; and the right to liberty, autonomy, self-determination, and freedom from coercion.
