Maternal, Neonatal and Child Health (MNCH)

Better HAG Uganda(), Uganda's maternal mortality ratio remains high at 435 per 100,000 live births with 6000 mothers dying annually meaning 16 mothers dying every day which is still far from the set reality under... Read More

Uganda's maternal mortality ratio remains high at 435 per 100,000 live births with 6000 mothers dying annually meaning 16 mothers dying every day which is still far from the set reality under Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 5 of 131 per 100,000 live births by 2015 and similarly, the Infant and Under Five Mortality Rate of 76 per 1000 live births and 137 per 1000 live births respectively. Inadequate access to skilled attendance at birth, emergency obstetric care, contraception, safe abortion services and comprehensive post-abortion care has aggravated maternal and newborn mortality in Uganda. Other factors include Malaria which continues to put lives of many expectant women, newborns and under five children at serious health risks; gender discrimination characterized by persistence of customary law discrimination towards women, violence against women and girls as well as deep-rooted cultural norms, customs and traditions including forced and early marriage as practices that continue to constitute serious obstacles to the realization of good maternal health. The low status of women in society and their dependency on others, financially and in decision making, undermine their autonomy and negatively affect their ability to access essential maternal health services. About 31% of the population still lives in absolute poverty (below $1 per day) thus many rural women experience precarious living conditions making a large proportion of them unable to access emergency obstetric care in time, since they lack enough resources e.g. for transport (despite public hospitals providing free maternal health services).

Our Interventions
Better HAG Uganda is part of a coalition of over 40 Civil Society Organizations (CSO's) petitioning Government to increase health financing in a bid to stop preventable maternal and child deaths. We believe this bad situation is being aggravated by the state's inability to increase health personnel (mid wives) in health centers, scale up their wages to curb brain drain, improve infrastructure in upcountry districts to attract health personnel, We have had several partner meetings, participated in peaceful demonstrations, worked closely with parliament to have a policy on reduction of preventable maternal and child deaths among others.