Postpartum care neglect is one leading cause of deaths
What you need to know:
Aga Khan University (AKU) lecturer in a Nursing and Midwifery department Dr Eunice Pallangyo conducted a research in 27 health centers and hospitals in Ilala district, her findings revealed that a large cause of deaths to mothers and their newborns within the first week after delivery is the lack of postpartum care in the country.
Dar es Salaam. Maternal health stakeholders have voiced on the relevance of postpartum care in the country as it has for years been neglected in the baseline of maternal healthcare provision.
According to the Aga Khan University (AKU) lecturer in a Nursing and Midwifery department Dr Eunice Pallangyo echoed that, the focus has always been on the prenatal care leaving behind the post-natal period, making it a large cause of deaths to mothers and their newborns within the first week after delivery.
Dr Pallangyo has conducted a research in 27 health centers and hospitals in Ilala district to assess the provision services to both mothers and newborns. She found out it is still poorly or lowly provided, which intensifies chances for a mothers’ death as they give birth.
“Although healthcare providers are aware of the importance of postpartum care and are positive about it, there are still many challenges. These include, insufficient space like special wards and rooms, equipment, a bigger population than the existing manpower and so on,” she explained.
Report by the Tanzania Demographic and Health Survey (TDHS) of 2016 exposed that only 34 per cent of women were provided with postpartum service after delivery, has led to cause the deaths of 25 women out of 1000 and 556 newborns out of 1000.
