Rural health centres will soon have reputable theatres, fitted with modern equipment and other facilities that are at the moment a preserve of health institutions

Maternity shelters will also be constructed in every remote area to serve expectant mothers when they want to deliver.

“Each shelter will have skilled midwives and an ambulance”, says Dr Solomon Mazdend, a programme officer, Division of Reproductive Health.

Revealing the planned ambitious programme, Solomon says that the initiative is in response to the increasing numbers of maternal deaths, majority of which can be attributed to complicated pregnancies and lack of skilled midwifery.

It is estimated that 414 out of every 100, 000 women die annually, one of the highest in sub-Saharan Africa. But there has been an increase in deaths resulting from complicated pregnancies.

According to the Millennium Development Goals, the government is expected to reduce this numbers by three quarters by the year 2015.

This sorry state is a consequence of many factors. Access to contraceptive by majority of women, especially in the rural areas, remains a huge problem.

According to the Ministry of Health, skilled birth attendants now stand at 41 percent, with contraceptive prevalence rate has stagnating at 39 percent.

Solomon says there will be advocacy in the use of contraceptives, offered by the ministry, but the women will have to decide on what they prefer.

The biggest challenge to the government now is how to implement this project, whose cost is estimated to run into billions of shillings.

But the future looks promising. According to Solomon, the government has now reviewed its policy and for the first time in this financial year, allocated 200 million shillings for the procurement of contraceptives.

Although faced with a deficit of 500 million shillings, the department is optimistic that this allocation would be a better beginning in improving maternal health.

For Solomon, this is a major resource shift, for the reproductive health sector in the past depended wholly on donor funds. It also gives hope that the planned face-lift of the health centres is likely to succeed.

Meanwhile, as the government pushes with renovation of health centres, it is emerging that the country is facing a shortage of doctors and nurses, who seek greener pastures in other countries after working for a few years locally.

Still, the government says thinks there enough skilled personnel, only that they are not employed. And its to this into productive use in the areas of maternal health.

Solomon says they are planning to address cultural issues through an audit system aa well as building institutional capacity.

“Pregnancy is a good thing,” says Solomon, “and the women should not die due to it, there are measures that will take place to ensure that the deaths are reduced to the minimal or even no more deaths”.

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