Maternal Health In Ethiopia

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Maternal health in Ethiopia

Introduction

Health global is a concept that prioritizes on achieving health equity and improving health all

over the world. Ethiopia is among the countries that the concept of global health has suffered

due to poor health issues that have affected the country. Ethiopia is located in East Africa and it

is highly populated and among the poorest countries in the world. Economic challenges in

Ethiopia have also led to poor health service provision because statistics depict that the country

has few hospitals, which still have few health professionals (Ethiopia: Social Sector Report 63).

This means that the health service provision is inadequate because the population is high, yet the

health facilities and health professionals are few. The maternal health department is the most hit

due to various issues that include high rates of illiteracy among women, poverty and inefficient

health services. This paper will review maternal health on Ethiopian women, the relevant section

relenting in its job and what this section should do to improve maternal care.

Maternal health situation in Ethiopia

The maternal health in Ethiopia is extremely critical because it is not granting the required

attention to the people in need. Numerous aspects have contributed to Ethiopia’s health care

deterioration. Among these aspects is poverty, which exposes Ethiopian women to lack basic

resources to seek medical attention. Statistics depict that 50% of Ethiopian women live under the

poverty level, which depicts that many of these women cannot access medical health. For this

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reason, professional health care remains expensive for many women in Ethiopia because their

resources cannot cater for such expenses (Ethiopia: Social Sector Report 63). Maternal health

costs include transportation to clinics, fees charged on facilities, services provided on these

facilities and drugs.

The other aspect that contributes to deteriorating maternal health in Ethiopia is that many

women are illiterate. Statistics depict that 65% of the entire population is illiterate (Kulczycki

208). Considering the marginalization that women in Africa undergo, the highest percentage of

the illiterate people are women. The illiteracy concept pushes the Ethiopian women towards lack

of knowledge on the benefits and necessity of maternal health care. Lack of access to maternal

health has led women to vast complication that result in maternal deaths. Statistics rate Ethiopia

among the countries with highest rates of maternal deaths, which accounts for 673 for every100,

000 live births. More so, statistics depict that 40% of pregnant women, which account for 50

million per year experience pregnancy-related health problems during pregnancy, after

pregnancy and during childbirth. Further results depict that 14% suffer from serious and long

term complications that include anemia, uterine prolapsed fistula, infert6ility, disabilities and

PID (Kulczycki 208).

Maternal health not only affects women, but rather it also affects children, whose survival

links depend on that of their mothers. Statistics show that 50% of the children’s’ death occur

within 24hours of birth. This means that the death of newborn heavily concentrates around the

period of delivery, the day of birth and few weeks after birth. The saddening fact is that more

than half of all births take place at home without the support of a skilled worker (Tan 244). In

addition, only 1 out of 4 postpartum mothers and their newborns seek postnatal care within the

required 48 hours. This makes them more vulnerable to infections and diseases that end up

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affecting and causing their deaths. This explains why 16 out of 100 children born in Ethiopia do

not live to see their 5

birthday. Prior to lack of postnatal care, the other cause of death in

children under the age of five is frequent illness and poor nutrition or low food intake (Tan 244).

This is highly contributed by poverty, which deprives the children adequate food with nutritional

values. In addition, many children lose their mothers due to maternal complication; hence,

pushing the children left by their mothers to die prematurely because they are vulnerable to

diseases, poor care and poor nutrition.

Analysis

The above mentioned facts on the causes and results of poor maternal health in Ethiopia depicts a

wide gap of irresponsibility that is fostered b the government of Ethiopia. The government is the

overall determiner in enhancing health care. This is the case because the government through the

ministry of health or health department should set apart resources that will upgrade and improve

the health care sector all over the nation. Therefore, the government should review its budget so

as to allocate enough resources to the health care sector (Tan, 244). Doing so will ensure that

health care facilities acquire modern equipments like life-saving machines and modern

equipments that detect a wide variety of ailments. More so, the resources will help in purchasing

ambulances that will be supplied countrywide. The ambulances will assist in ferrying pregnant

women under critical conditions towards near medical centers so that they can acquire fast

medical attention. The other most crucial step that the government should pursue is to build

dispensaries in the in its vast locations that include upcountry and ensure that services and drugs

are granted free of charge (Tan 244). This is essential because it ensures that all citizens have

reachable medication whenever they need it. The divers dispensaries should have adequate

equipment and standby ambulances to ferry critical patients to the nearest specialized health care

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facilities. Lastly, the government should put up campaign strategies to educate women about the

need and necessity of seeking maternal health care. This can be accomplished through road

shows, television adverts and campaigns by social workers, who will visit villages.

Conclusion

A deeper perspective on Ethiopia’s maternal health shows that the government is relenting in its

obligation and duty to offer women the most fundamental need, which is free and available

health care. This is because despite the efforts the government has implemented on improving

health care, it has not put into consideration the maternal needs. This explains why the entire

initiative lacks campaigns that educate women about the need for attending maternal care during

and after pregnancy, where they will be catered for and advised on nutrition and other relevant

aspects. More so, the government fails to realize that many of its citizens are poor; thus, women

coming from such backgrounds lack resources to acquire medical care during pregnancy. This

raises the need for the government to implement free medical services especially to women and

children below the age of five, just like many other countries have done. Such measures will

ensure that the rate of maternal deaths in Ethiopia subsides significantly (Berhanu Feysia et Al.

69). Therefore, it is a high time that the government reviews the health sector under an analyzed

perspective so as to ensure that women and children access quality health care.

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Works cited

Ethiopia: Social Sector Report. Washington, DC: World Bank, 1998. Print.

Kulczycki, Andrzej. Critical Issues in Reproductive Health. , 2014. Internet resource.

Tan, Joseph. E-health Care Information Systems: An Introduction for Students and

Professionals. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, 2005. Internet resource.

The Health Workforce in Ethiopia: Addressing the Remaining Challenges ; Edited by Berhanu

Feysia ... [et Al.]. Washington, D.C: World Bank, 2012. Print.

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