By Elie Mutangana.
The provision of quality surgical and obstetrical care to Rwandan women and children have contributed to significant reduction of maternal and child mortality in Rwanda, thanks to Momentum Safe surgery in family and obstetrics project for its contribution.
During the closeout ceremony of the project in Kigali on November 7, the project highlighted its key accomplishment, aligned with priorities of government of Rwanda.
According to the project implementors, the aim of it was to reduce maternal, newborn and child mortality and morbidity by strengthening the capacity of country institutions and local organization to introduce, deliver, scare up and sustain the use evidence-based quality maternal, newborn, and child health, voluntary family planning and reproductive health services
The project ran from April 2021-November 2024 and covered 26 hospitals and two medicalized health centers from 20 districts with a total investment of $3.37 million. The project focused on capacitating health care providers through mentorships, to enable them make informed decision while providing surgical services including the Cesarian section(C-section)- the surgical delivery of a baby through a cut(incision) made in the birth parent’s abdomen for women seeking it.
Also, it increased the awareness of equal access to quality informed and consented surgical care.” This project has contributed to our efforts on different priorities. The key that I can highlight is like “Four by Four” model, where we had to make sure that we quadruple the number of health care providers we have. Even though we have targeted mostly those in service, but we are happy that also those out of service has also been targeted. We hope that health care providers are more equipped with necessary skills and able to provide quality service.” Said Athanase Rukundo, The Director General of Clinical and public health services governance at Ministry of Health.
DG, Athanase Rukundo said that Rwanda now stands well in terms of reducing maternal and child mortality.
Rukundo added that with unwavering support by different partners, Rwanda now stands well in terms of maternal and child mortality. He expressed his gratitude to the Momentum project for its contribution throughout the journey. ” Rwanda has made tremendous progress when it comes to reducing maternal mortality and overtime, we have been reducing the numbers. This has been possible because of the contribution of different partners especially USAID Rwanda, IntraHealth and among others. We continue to build on that legacy of this project”. He added.
While there are still high risks for women and babies in sub-Saharan African dying during birth, Cesarian or C-section is the most trusted surgical operation globally, when performed perfectly the risks of death can be avoided. However, in Africa, accessibility to it is still low.According to physicians, over the last decades, access to safe C-section delivery is essential for reducing maternal and other obstetrical complications.
According to data from Rwanda Biomedical Center (RBC), C-section surgery accounts for over 66 percent of all surgeries performed in in all district hospitals. Currently, approximately 23 % of deliveries in district hospitals of Rwanda are made through C-section and 30 % of babies are born by C-section.
However, despite the progress, hospitals and medicalized health centers decry the existing challenges of shortage of staff and doctors in midwifery cadre who performs such surgical operations.
Additionally, hospitals are still grappling with high turnovers among the staff, mainly owing to overworking and remuneration issues.”In term of staff, we are short of doctors and even most of doctors are very young and less experienced. We are emphasizing on training them so that they can play a role in reduction of poor outcomes. Secondly, we have a challenge of shortage of equipment”. Said Jean Damascene Hanyurwimfura, Director General of Masaka Hospital.
The Ministry of Health responds that it is putting efforts in enrolling a greater number of students pursuing health care providing domain to solve the issue of the shortage of medics.
“College of Medicine is training the next generation of health care providers and are equipped with enabling skills and tools and we believe that they are going to provide quality services”. Said DG, Rukundo. “The target is to make sure that we increase the number of healthcare providers we have in different cadres, being nurses, doctors, specialists and other professionals because we see that the number, we have now is not enough quality of care we want to our population”.
For that, the government is mobilizing resources, and has started enrolling staff to quadruple the number. Furthermore, among other incentives include giving scholarships to students in the medical profession.
