EFFORTS by the Government in reducing maternal mortality rate are bearing fruit if reports coming from Mulobezi in Western Province are to be believed.
It is gratifying to hear that Mulobezi Rural Health Centre has gone for four years without recording a single death from maternal complications.
The news comes barely months after the Central Statistical Office (CSO) announced that maternal mortality and child mortality rates had drastically declined.
The 2013-2014 Demographic Health Survey (DHS) also indicated that a Third, which is 68 per cent of women delivered in the health facility, an increase from 48 per cent in 2007.
While this is good news for the country, the maternal mortality rate is generally higher in rural areas than in urban centres.
Apparently, it is hardly a secret that rural areas have struggled to cope with high maternal mortality rates.
Long distances to nearest health centres, poor road networks, lack of trained birth attendants as well as strong traditional beliefs have all been cited as catalysts of maternal mortality rate.
However, the Government and its stakeholders have employed various intervention measures in an effort to tackle the maternal mortality rate in the country.
In the case of Mulobezi, clinical officer-in-charge Dickson Mwaliteta said the health institution had managed to line up several health interventions to curb maternal deaths.
Mr Mwaliteta said one of the programmes that had helped prevent maternal deaths was the Saving Mothers Giving Lives Project which was introduced in the district over the years.
Apart from the project, it is encouraging that Mulobezi Health Centre has also created Safe Motherhood Action Groups (SMAGs) that are sensitising expectant mothers on the need to attend the clinic during pregnancy.
These efforts are proving crucial not only at community level, but also at national level as evidenced by the reduced maternal mortality rate in the country.
It is an important landmark for a rural health centre to have gone for years without maternal death.
As we congratulate Mulobezi Rural Health Centre, we also call on other health institutions in Zambia – both in rural and urban areas – to get inspired and emulate the achievements of
Mulobzi Rural Haelth Centre. OPINION