Zimbabwe’s midwives supplement ailing health system | Citypress

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As Zimbabwe’s public healthcare system continues to crumble, many pregnant women are turning to independent midwives to deliver their children

Ivy Gatsi and Jose Verde Kerstean watch over Kerstean's twin daughters Akiela and Kaylah, who were born with Gatsi’s help. Photo: KB MpofuA dim candle flame lighting the room can be seen from outside through the open door at a backyard maternity ward in Mabvuku, a populous and high-density suburb in the east of Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe.

“One day an expecting woman came to deliver and my mother was not around. I had no choice but to help her. When my mother came, she said I had done it correctly,” Kunzara recalls. That was the beginning of her midwifery work. Kunzara, a mother of 10, says though not professionally certified as a midwife, in 1995 she received training from nurses at clinics in her home area and senior midwives from her church.

Zimbabwe is experiencing its worst economic crisis in decades with uncontrolled inflation, stagnant salaries, widespread poverty and shortages of essentials such as water and electricity. The health sector has seen sporadic nationwide strikes by health workers for three years over poor remuneration. Health authorities have also raised an alarm over staff shortages because of an exodus of healthcare workers. Nurses take home less than US$200 a month.

Faith-based midwives became popular in 2019 when nurses and junior doctors went on a strike that lasted several months. Public health facilities like Edith Maternity Clinic in Mbare, the biggest provider of maternity healthcare owned by the Harare city council, turned away expecting mothers. In the tiny room Gatsi uses as a maternity ward, there is a single bed where expecting mothers sleep. There is a plastic “mat” on the floor where they lie when giving birth.

Both Kunzara and Gatsi say they use PPEs in their maternity wards to prevent the transmission of diseases including Covid-19. The Zimbabwe Demographic and Health Survey estimates child mortality rates at 651 deaths per 100 000 live births in the country.

Source: Healthcare Press (healthcarepress.net)

 

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