Abortion, Diabetes, Maternal and Neonatal mortality: Silent tragedy in Cameroon!

Government might claim it has reduced death rates. But not to the satisfaction of World Health Organization!

By Yemti Harry Ndienla

Officials in the Ministry of Health in the republic of Cameroon have revealed that the number of women who die during pregnancy and in the process of child bearing (maternal mortality) and the number of children who die soon after birth (neonatal mortality) is fast ravaging the population of the country far more than many developing countries. Here, more than half a million women a year die during pregnancy and in childbirth, largely from problems that can be treated or prevented.

According to official statistics from that Ministry, the rate of maternal mortality in Cameroon stands slightly above 650 women per a hundred thousand while that of neonatal mortality is 29 per thousand. Figures which according to Dr. Etienne Asonganyi, Obstetrician and Gynecologist, “are very high compared to other countries, reason why it is called a silent tragedy”

Health officials here have recognized among others; Anemia and its complications, malaria, postpartum infections, respiratory track infections as foundation of the silent tragedy. Other leading causes include but not limited to abortion, diabetes, high blood pressure, and over-bleeding. It should be noted here that maternal deaths from such causes were largely eliminated nearly a century ago in developed countries. Sadly enough, the women who die in developing countries are usually young and healthy, leaving their newborn at great risk of following them as well.

Though the solution to these unfortunate situations are also enshrined in the much heralded “Millennium Development Goals” of availability and accessibility to health services and the provision of quality healthcare, the government of Cameroon lacks the will power to make possible changes due to high level corruption and other unconstructive approach. Should we relate these to the arrest and detention of the country’s former minister of public health and some of his associates about a year or so ago? While the tragedy is fast ravaging the population, health officials in some areas are emphasizing on the importance of family planning as means of curbing the misfortune.

On the other hand family planning is of paramount importance here owing to the fact that many women lack education and information about birth control. In so doing they become pregnant too young to give birth safely. Besides, about 40% of women in Cameroon do not go in for prenatal consultations, due to both poverty and especially ignorance thereby paving way for closed to 40% of children to die before the age of one due to diarrhea, tetanus, pneumonia and HIV/AIDS.

Many here would rather prefer to give birth at home due to high cost of health care while those who managed to go to the hospital are often faced with poor infrastructure, inadequate and in most cases unskilled personnel.

Maternal mortality is a very important aspect of healthcare because child survival depends on the mother's health. It is disappointing that maternal mortality is quite high in Cameroon despite huge international financial and material assistance.

Though it seems the is no single solution for these problems which tend to have so many facets, the public has to be well sensitized on the issue for them to take necessary measures in preventing the tragedy and especially on the risk involved during child bearing if women do not take appropriate measures.

In addition, special services in infant welfare clinics and antenatal care services have to be made available in most hospitals. These include among others a breast milk bank for children whose mothers pass away during delivery or those whose breast milk has been deemed not healthy for the child consumption.

Other stopgap measures will be to train more medical officers especially Doctors like the insignificant number of student doctors who are presently receiving training at CUSS, Yaounde, and the University of Buea, construct and equip more hospitals and clinics to handle emergencies, and perform Caesareans.

Modern houses should equally be erected to attract and accommodate resident doctors and nurses to rural areas conscious of the fact that it is not easy to lure doctors and nurses to these areas where most people live in abject poverty with near total absence of some basic social amenities including electricity, flush toilets or pipe-borne water. Furthermore, places should also be provided for pregnant women in remote areas to stay near hospitals so that they can make it to the labor ward on time owing to the fact that it is not uncommon for a woman in labor from a remote village to arrive a health centre after a daylong trek, or bone-rattling ride on the back of her husband, a bicycle or motorcycle, sometimes with the arm or leg of her unborn child already emerging from her body. And many arrive too late to change the situation.

It’s rather unfortunate that despite measures taken to reduce the trends worldwide, the situation in Cameroon remains a cause for great concern thus generating fears that the situation could retard efforts to reduce the deaths by 75% in 2015.

However, the situation is not limited to Cameroon. Women in Africa have some of the world’s highest death rates in pregnancy and during childbirth. WHO statistics hold that for each woman who dies in the continent, 20 others suffer from serious complications. “Maternal deaths have remained stubbornly intractable” for two decades, states a 2008 report by Unicef. Though in the year 2000, the United Nations set a goal to reduce the deaths by 75 percent by 2015; many poor nations seem to be far from this tag.