Mothers waiting shelters in dire need

By The Standard | Jun. 16, 2021

Forty-year-old Jessica Nyusi from Gokwe is expecting her sixth baby and to be sure of her safety, she had to check into a mothers’ waiting shelter at St Luke’s Mission Hospital in Matabeleland North’s Lupane district, several kilometres away from her home.

BY PHYLLIS MBANJE

She is no stranger to the facility built with the assistance of the European Union, but this time around, she is not comfortable and yearns for her humble home in Mukoka, Gokwe South district.

“This place is overcrowded. There are too many of us here and the toilets are now blocked and giving off a putrid smell. It is unbearable,” she said.

Nyusi, along with the over 150 women at the facility, which has a holding capacity of only 80, are urgently calling for a redress of the dire situation — overcrowding and collapsing ablution facilities.

During a recent visit to the facility, journalists witnessed the sad situation which is escalating by the day.

The women spend most of their time outside since the rooms are too small and the smell from the nearby toilets is overwhelming.

Although grateful that they are monitored daily by medical personnel who ensure that their babies are safe and growing as expected, the overcrowding and related challenges are now casting a dark shadow on the previously celebrated health facility, with rising fears that this would scare away women in the future, a risk which is too grave, especially for those with complicated pregnancies.

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The facility, which is designed to cater for women who stay far from health facilities and those with complications, has over the past year been overwhelmed by pregnant women from as far as Gokwe and Binga.

This high demand has seen some of the women at the mothers’ waiting home sleeping on the floor.

Speaking to the media, a midwife at the hospital, Geli Phiri, said the situation was now dire.

“Some are still sleeping on the floor. It is overcrowded as you can see, but these women need the services,” she said.

On a daily basis, they deliver an average of around 30 babies.

Phiri said the shelters were key in addressing obstetric emergencies and other complications like eclampsia.

Eclampsia are seizures that occur during pregnancy or shortly after giving birth.

“The women come at 36 gestation weeks and we monitor the foetal hearts. It remains one of the best mitigatory measures against obstetric emergencies which can result in maternal deaths, but the shelter is now overcrowded and faces a myriad of other challenges,” Phiri said.

“The rooms are now too small for the growing numbers and the floors badly chirped. The women also complain that the charging ports for their mobile phones are damaged. This prevents them from communicating and staying in touch with their families back home.”

Nyusi added: “We take turns to bath and that can be exhausting. And the smell from the toilets is now so bad, we are even afraid it will harm the babies.”

Thirty-five-year-old Sikhanyisiwe Ndlovu said she came to the shelter because nurses at her local clinic had told her that the baby was too big and there might be complications which needed better facilities.

“We are very grateful for the services, especially the midwives who check on us everyday. We also get food portions donated by the Food and Agricultural Organisation, but look at how we live. There are too many of us, sometimes you feel like there is no more air to breathe,” she chuckles naughtily.

Zimbabwe is one of the countries with higher maternal mortality rates at around 462 deaths per 100 000 births.

This is according to the multiple indicator cluster survey of 2019.

Maternal waiting shelters have been instrumental in curbing maternal deaths.

In 2015, the World Health Organisation recommended that maternal waiting homes be established close to healthcare facilities in remote areas or those with limited access to healthcare.

This was, in part, to help reduce not only infant mortality but also death among pregnant women.

But most of these facilities are now in a state of disrepair due to underfunding of the health sector.