The emergence of a maternity ward

This week Birgit and I spend time visiting NCA supported projects.  The main reason for traveling all the way north to the Tanzanian border was to participate in a site meeting for a health center building project.  From Karonga, after having followed the tarmac road towards the border for a while we branched off to a dusty and bumpy road. In patches it is not passable in the rainy season.  As we passed by rice fields on the plains, and negotiated some tricky stretches as we climbed the hills, we certainly understood why. Eventually we reached this sign:

Msumbe Clinic is owned by the Livingstonia Synod of the Presbyterian Church, and is serving the population from far distances in this hilly area.  The current outpatient department is too small, the building partly dilapidated, and operating without running water.  There is no proper delivery facilities for expectant mothers, and the one existing staff house is sub-standard.  On this background there was need for serious upgrading and expansion. Before end of 2015 Msumbe will have a maternity ward, which in principle will look like this:

Currently the site for the ward is being leveled out through manual work carried out by people hired from the local community:

There will be a guardian shelter, which will be a facility for expecting mothers with their guardians as they wait for delivery, there will be two staff houses, and the current clinic will be upgraded.  A borehole will be sunk to secure sufficient clean water.

During the site visit drawings were consulted against terrain and current status:

The site meeting revealed encouraging progress, and the users were quite happy about the prospects of the improved facilities.

The challenge, which is the general challenge in the health system in Malawi, is to see that necessary resources are made available to secure professional health service inside the infrastructure.  This is an ongoing struggle for the owners of the clinics.  We believe that Livingstonia Synod’s commitment will be kept.  

Experiences from other maternity wards are that the number of women who deliver their babies at the ward increases dramatically when facilities are available.  The number of children who enter this world in a healthy way is increasing and the children who die at birth drop encouragingly.  We believe the infrastructure will not be another “white elephant”, but can be of valuable service!