by Gui Tao, Tian Ye
KAMPALA, July 25 (Xinhua) -- The ongoing 15th African Union (AU) summit is committed to deciphering the decades-long mystery of the high maternal mortality in Africa, which contributes to about 47 percent of global maternal deaths with sub-Saharan Africa accounting for the lion's share.
Money has long been regarded as the panacea to the chronic disease of maternal deaths in the region. A universal belief is that "the buck stops with bucks" in Africa since insufficient funding has led to lack of health services and facilities, medical personnel brain drain of and deficient pre- and post-natal care.
But money is not the only reason behind the alarmingly high maternal mortality in Africa. A few other elements are also to blame on the paradox of "losing life while giving life" on the continent.
In most African rural areas, expectant mothers are mostly taken care of by traditional birth attendants at their households, rather than at hospitals which are of longer distance and higher cost. The typical and entrenched mentality is that "Since my mom and mom's mom deliver at home, why cannot I?" So the mothers-to-be turn to midwives in the villages or untrained relatives or friends.
According to the recently released UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Report 2010, only 46 percent of the deliveries in the sub-Saharan Africa are attended by skilled health personnel in 2008, a stark contrast to the average figures in the world's developing regions and the developed regions that stand at 63 percent and 99 percent respectively.
Even in Kenya, East Africa's largest economy, more than 56 percent of the pregnant women choose to deliver at home.
Christopher Omolo, a senior manager at the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, said that some women who gave birth at home did not think a clinic was necessary. But the harsh truth is that poorly equipped with merely a wad of cloth and a pair of scissors, even the most experienced midwife in the village will find it impossible to handle deadly labor complications such as hemorrhage and high blood pressure.
