NAKURU, Kenya, Mar 24 – Thirty-two health facilities in Nakuru have received Non-Pneumatic Anti-Shock Governors (NASGs) through a collaboration aimed at reducing maternal and prenatal mortalities in the county.
Each of the facilities will get two NASGs bringing the total number of tools donated to 66.
Handing the tools which also included Information, Education and Communication (IEC) materials, logbooks for registering the indicators and aprons, Dandelion Africa Executive Director, Wendo Sahar said it was important to give mothers and new-born babies dignified care.
She said the NASGs would help eliminate or reduce maternal deaths from Post-Partum Hemorrhage (PPH) which has been identified as a lead killer among mothers in Kenya.
“The tools help control severe bleeding after delivery by exerting pressure on the lower body and reverses the shock thereby improving chances of survival for a bleeding mother,” she said.
Sahar noted that PPH was the greatest cause of maternal deaths, adding that NASG and skilling maternity workers on Emergency Obstetric Care (EMOC) could prevent those deaths.
“Strengthening the health system is key across board as Dandelion Africa focus on the transformational agenda of the country,” she said
She observed that their duty as non-state actors was to work with the county government to ensure no mother or child died and to ensure that communities were healthy.
Nakuru County Executive Committee Member for Health, Roselyn Mungai said maternity health workers who included midwife nurses and midwife clinical officers and doctors from 32 health facilities in the region received refresher courses on EMOC.
“The refresher information they have gained through the five-day training by Dandelion Africa team will be used to train others in their respective facilities and social circles for a multiplier effect on the skill-building,” she said.
She confessed that the county only had a few NASGs at the Nakuru County Teaching and Referral Hospital and none in the level three and four hospitals.
“Facilities in the counties used to receive NASG from the national government and they have a few pieces in Level Five hospital only,” she said.
Mungai said the national government has not been supplying the tools over time and the move by Dandelion Africa to bridge the gap was extremely vital
She added that the partnership between Nakuru County Department of Health and Dandelion Africa has been long standing, technical oriented and transformational union that has helped the county in thinking through processes, intervention and developing capability
Kimutai Otieno, a midwife trainer said the five days training EMOC training for nurses, Clinical officers and doctors addressed the five major causes of maternal deaths.
“The lead cause of maternal deaths are PPH, hypertensive disorders, infections, obstructed labour and post abortion complications,” she said.
She said the training was meant to ensure that the midwives could diagnose those issues early, manage those they could handle at their facilities and refer those that required referral on time to stop maternal and perinatal mortalities.
Source: capitalfm
