Women Faith Leaders Urged to Take Leading Role in Reducing Maternal Deaths in Malawi
Safe Motherhood is an initiative of the UN launched in 1987 to ensure all women receive the care they need to be safe and healthy throughout pregnancy and childbirth.
Malawi: The Special Presidential Advisor on Safe Motherhood and Reproductive Health, Dorothy G. Ngoma, has urged women faith leaders to take a leading role in reducing maternal deaths in Malawi, writes Comfort Bulangete.
Speaking in an interview with AfricaBrief, Ngoma said, "They have to take full responsibility for reducing maternal deaths, culture has been a block, and males do not consider lives of women as they oppose family planning methods, next meeting we will involve men, they need to be in forefront protecting women and understand issues going around women”.
This call to action came during an interface meeting with women faith leaders in Chikwawa on January 18, 2023, where Ngoma urged them to educate and inform their congregations about reproductive health, fistula, and family planning.
Pastor Ganizani Valantini, District Inter-faith AIDS Committee Chairperson, stressed that men have not been involved in the battle against maternal deaths in the past, but now they understand the issues and will be involved.
He said, "Actually many women have been dying here in Chikwawa because of implications in pregnancies, many of them could not go to the hospital at an earlier time as advised but this time men will encourage women to visit the hospital and get treatment on time and we will disseminate the information to others”.
Participant Loveness Chiotcha from Faith Mission Church said, "She was impressed with the conference as she has learnt a lot and she expects everything to change after getting advise as her husband will be briefed about the issues learnt."
Safe Motherhood Coordinator for Chikwawa District Hospital, Nyson Sekani, said, "There is progress despite reverses in safe motherhood issues in Chikwawa as safe motherhood initiative since it started in the district is helping mothers to stay healthy during pregnancy and deliver healthy babies."
"These women faith leaders are more important in implementing safe motherhood issues as they are more influential and if they take the message here and tell it to their followers it will be an easy thing for them to adopt the knowledge we have imparted them as getting pregnant without having some knowledge of what to expect, is like going on a voyage without a map."
Safe Motherhood is an initiative of the UN launched in 1987 to ensure all women receive the care they need to be safe and healthy throughout pregnancy and childbirth.