Household of Trust
September 11, 2023
The number of women who die due to pregnancy-related complications is disturbingly high.
Maternal mortality is the number of women who die due to pregnancy-related complications during pregnancy or delivery or 42 days after delivery of a child.
The report of the facility-based maternal mortality for 2016/17 indicated 148 deaths per 100,000 health facility deliveries. Based on these results, this was an increase from 119 recorded in 2015/16.
Maternity is a critical sector in health and, in fact, in everything about life and development. At the moment, however, it’s a section that faces all kinds of challenges that we must address with greater attention.
The Annual Health Performance report by the Ministry of Health indicated that haemorrhage was another significant cause of maternal illness and mortality in the last five years, accounting for 39% of deaths in 2015/16. Although pregnancy-related hypertension (pre-eclampsia and eclampsia) was high in 2014/15 (12%), it was surpassed by postpartum sepsis (20%) to be second to obstetric haemorrhage.
The survey also reported other critical concerns like unsafe abortion and indirect causes of aggravated pregnancies.
Facility-based maternal mortality at birth was calculated as the number of maternal deaths per all deliveries at a facility in a given period.
Amaka ag’obwesigwa
September 11, 2023
Family Planning - Unmet Needs
The unmet need for family planning is the quantity or percentage of women currently married or in a union who are productive, want to terminate or postpone childbearing, and are not already using a contraceptive method.
The unmet needs for a family planning group contain two categories: those with an unmet need for limiting and those with an unmet need for spacing.
Survey reports indicated that the last ten years have witnessed a steady decline in Uganda’s unmet need for contraceptive use. The downward trend or decrease is observed more in rural than urban areas.