Pregnancy. Only 37 per cent of facilities providing delivery services meet all the basic standards for emergency obstetric and newborn care.
Delays inside health facilities, where women and newborns
arrive but fail to receive timely and quality care, are now the biggest driver
of maternal deaths in Kenya, a new analysis shows.
The delay accounts for 45 per cent of the factors
contributing to maternal and newborn deaths, compared with 30 per cent linked
to delays in deciding to seek care and 25 per cent caused by difficulties in
reaching health facilities.
Polycarp Oyoo, Programme Advisor at the International Centre
for Reproductive Health Kenya (ICRHK), presented the findings during the
Wanahabari Editors’ Roundtable in Nairobi on August 27.
“The 3rd delay happens INSIDE health facilities, when women
and newborns arrive but don’t receive timely, quality care,” Oyoo said.
The figures, drawn from the Kenya Quality of Care Survey
2023/24, challenge the common focus on transport, distance and the decision by
women to seek medical help as the main barriers to safe childbirth.
Oyoo said only 37 per cent of facilities providing delivery
services meet all the basic standards for emergency obstetric and newborn care.
The situation is worse for higher-level facilities. Only 46
per cent of level four and five hospitals had all nine functions needed for
comprehensive emergency obstetric and newborn care.
There are also serious shortages of lifesaving medicines.
The presentation showed that 48 per cent of facilities had
recently experienced stockouts of magnesium sulphate, while 47 per cent had run
out of benzyl penicillin and 40 per cent had experienced oxytocin stockouts.
These medicines are important in managing complications that
can quickly become fatal.
Staffing and diagnostic capacity are also weak. Only 12 of
Kenya’s 47 counties meet the recommended ratio of 70 per cent medical staff to
30 per cent non-medical staff.
The presentation also showed that only 36 to 40 per cent of
health workers correctly diagnosed and managed severe dehydration, postpartum
haemorrhage or birth asphyxia.
Only 52 per cent of mothers had their blood pressure checked
within 15 minutes of delivery.
Oyoo said the figures should change the way journalists
report maternal and newborn health.
“The solutions are known. The editorial question is: are
they reaching women?” he said.
He urged journalists to investigate drug stockouts,
shortages of health workers and equipment, and weaknesses in care rather than
concentrating only on deaths after they occur.
The presentation proposed stronger antenatal care, including
early visits, blood pressure and anaemia screening and birth preparedness. At
birth, women need skilled attendants, blood and essential medicines. After
delivery, mothers need comprehensive postnatal care, monitoring and respectful
treatment.
For newborns, immediate care, kangaroo care, breathing
support and special units for small and sick babies can save lives.
Kenya has already started a major push to address some of
these gaps through the Every Woman Every Newborn Everywhere Acceleration Plan
2026-2028. The programme includes a six-month rapid results initiative in 26
high-burden counties, targeting a 15 per cent reduction in facility maternal
deaths, neonatal deaths and fresh stillbirths.
The Ministry of Health has also announced plans to recruit
5,000 nurses and midwives and provide additional funding for maternal health
commodities.
Oyoo challenged editors to follow such commitments and
establish whether they translate into better care at facility level.
Linda Bach, representing the Kenya Editors Guild president
Zubeidah Kananu, said the media must move beyond reporting announcements and
ask whether commitments are implemented and resources reach health services.
“We need to ask: What happened after the announcement? Were
commitments implemented? Did resources reach the intended services? What are
women and families experiencing? What is working, and can it be replicated?”
Bach said.
She called for more county-level reporting because national
figures can hide major differences in staffing, financing, commodities,
referrals and quality of care.
Irene Choge of Wanahabari Centre said storytelling itself
can help save lives if journalists report both failures and solutions.
“Tell the stories of what is not working. But also tell the
stories of what is working,” Choge told journalists. “Ask the difficult
questions. Tell the stories that hold people to account.”
The ICRHK presentation urged editors to make maternal and
newborn health a continuing accountability story by investigating facilities,
tracking county budgets and measuring whether government responses produce
results.