Motorbike ambulances help save lives of pregnant women and their babies in Mozambique

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Motorbike ambulances help save lives of pregnant women and their babies in Mozambique

8:01 CAT | 20 Sep 2017

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A maternal and child health support program has delivered five ambulance motorbikes and other supplies to support pregnant women give birth in Mozambique’s central Sofala province in an attempt to relive transport difficulties.

“Our nurses will be better able to reduce maternal and child mortality in our health units,” provincial health department representative Emelina José said as she received the donation, which will benefit pregnant women covered by 30 health units in 11 districts.

Many Mozambican women continue to give birth at home without skilled care, and are slow to seek services from a health unit, the US Agency for Child Development’s Maternity and Child Survival Program notes.

Only 36 percent of the population lives within half an hour of a health centre, while another 30 percent share has no access to any kind of care, it adds.

The motorbike ambulances just delivered will “facilitate the transport of pregnant women to their nearest health unit”, and the material also includes culinary demonstration kits aimed at reducing malnutrition.

The Maternal and Child Survival Program consortium is led by Jhpiego, an affiliate of Johns Hopkins University, with input from Save the Children, John Snow and PATH.

The consortium works with the Mozambican Ministry of Health to increase access to quality reproductive, maternal, neonatal and child health services in Nampula and Sofala provinces in the north and centre of the country.

Source: Lusa