Government should invest in safe motherhood- NGO says

Government ought to tame the causes of maternal deaths that rob women from enjoying safe motherhood, a Human Rights Organization has appealed.

Centre for Solutions Journalism (CSJ) has said in the modern century pregnancy should be a source of happiness and not sorrow and tears as is the case now due to high maternal mortality.

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“The government should address the causes of maternal deaths such as bleeding during child birth, infections, sepsis, obstructed labour and unsafe abortions. Describing pregnancy as pakati to mean midpoint between life and death of a pregnant woman should end,” CSJ Director, Brian Ligomeka said.

He was speaking in Lilongwe during training of journalists on professional coverage of Safe Motherhood in the country.

Ligomeka commended the government for its interventions in reducing maternal deaths.

He cited interventions like the revision of marriage age to 18, provision of ARVs to reduce infections, provision of free contraceptives and drafting of the Termination of Pregnancy Bill as demonstration of the government’s commitment to safe motherhood.

“We support the government’s process of enacting the Termination of Pregnancy Bill which was drafted by the Law Commission. We believe the proposed law will save the lives of women and girls and reduce maternal deaths,” Ligomeka added.

Lawyer and Human Rights Activist, Juliet Sibale said the proposed law drafted by the Law Commission once passed would allow women and girls to access the services on four grounds only.

“Once the proposed law is in place, termination of a pregnancy would be permissible, where continued holding of pregnancy will endanger the life of a pregnant woman; where termination is necessary to prevent injury to the physical or mental health of a pregnant woman, where there is severe malformation of a foetus, and where the pregnancy is a result of rape, incest, or defilement,” she said.

Sibale explained that access to safe abortion would remain restricted.

Despite current restrictions, abortion is still rampant in the country.

Research by the College of Medicine and Guttmacher Institute shows that over 141,000 abortions happened in the country in 2015 alone.

“We are in a situation where no religion, and no restrictive law has stopped women from procuring abortion when they wish to do so. It seems when a woman decides that she does not want a pregnancy, she does anything to terminate it and the statistics from district hospitals speak to that fact,” Vice Chairperson of the Coalition for the Prevention of Unsafe Abortion, Dr Amos Nyaka said.