Reducing birth risks

Mortality due to childbirth complications is very high in the Kayes region. Hemorrhage is the leading cause of maternal death. "Some Community Health Centres (CSCOM) are more than 100 kilometres from a hospital or Reference Health Center (CSREF). When it’s necessary to evacuate a woman over such a distance for a difficult delivery, the fetus can suffer on the way, not least because of the precarious state of our roads. Moreover, the mother runs the risk of uterine rupture during this perilous journey. However, if these facilities start implementing the Basic Emergency Obstetric and Neonatal Care (BEONC) protocols, this could considerably reduce complications and lower the death rate," explains Sita Fofana, adding that this would also relieve the CSREF maternity units. In the CSREF where she works, in Kita, the second-largest town in the region, between 100 and 200 deliveries take place every month. 

BEONC training is aimed at obstetric nurses, midwives and doctors from CSCOMs and CSREFs. In addition to theory and exercises, each participant was able to assist at least one woman with an instrumental delivery during on-call duty in the hospital maternity ward. Dr. Youssouf Kamaté, Technical Director of the CSCOM in Diboli, 95 km from Kayes, delivers more than 20 babies a month, at least five of them with complications: "I can’t wait to get home and apply everything I’ve learned during the 12 days of training, especially in the treatment of hemorrhages." 

With the seventh session of the training, the number of health centers with staff trained on SONUB protocols in the Kayes region has doubled. In Kita, the number of structures that can handle complicated deliveries even increased from 8 to 23, thus improving the survival rate of mothers and newborns, with a definite positive impact on the survival rate at birth.

This session, organized with funding from the USA National Committee for UNICEF as part of the “Strengthening Health Systems for Every Child” project, made it possible to train 170 health professionals from the districts of Kayes, Keniéba and Kita, which concentrates more than 50 percent of the population of the Kayes region.