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Andile Tshuma, Chronicle Reporter

THE Ministry of Health and Child Care has said abortions in the country fuel maternal deaths, with 71 deaths having been recorded in the first four months of this year.

Speaking in a telephone interview, the director of Family Health in the Ministry of Health and Child Care, Dr Bernard Madzima, said many women who undergo illegal abortions suffer infections but do not seek medical attention due to fear of prosecution.

He said all women must feel free to go to health centres as health personnel will not persecute them. 

“Health professionals are not investigators, their job is to render health-related services to the public. People must not fear to approach hospitals. We are having such high numbers of people dying due to maternal deaths because of such things. 

“Many people do not get the post-abortal care that they must get to prevent infections. Blood must be available to all women needing post abortal treatment, whatever their circumstances,” said Dr Madzima. 

He said another major cause of maternal deaths in Zimbabwe was intensive bleeding. 

Other causes are infections, malaria, and hypertension among others. Dr Madzima said while the maternal mortality rate has significantly dropped in the country, the figure remains too high. 

“The figure has significantly reduced. However, it still remains unacceptably high because no woman must die while bringing a new life to this world. The current statistics from a 2012 survey state that our maternal mortality rate stands at 600 per 100 000 births annually. 

“This is a significant drop from the previous study where the maternal mortality rate stood at 960 per 100 000 live births. The average deaths per day in 2010 stood at 8,” said Dr Madzima.

He said he was confident that the figures had gone down again although a new study is set to be undertaken this year.

“I think the new study will reveal figures of between 300 and 400 deaths per 100 000 births. For instance, in the first quarter of 2018, we had 71 which when multiplied by four will give us a figure close to 300. We are happy with the efforts made but we will not stop until we totally do away with maternal deaths,” Dr Madzima said.

He said maternal services remain free in public hospitals although there were challenges in accessing medicines.

“We need to ensure constant availability of life saving commodities such as blood, drugs, drips and other consumables to ensure that even a mother who cannot afford any of these is able to access quality healthcare,” Dr Madzima said.

@andile_tshuma