Mother and child health
Maternity waiting homes
In Africa, one out of 210 mothers dies during pregnancy or delivery. One of the causes is the relatively low rate of institutional deliveries, due to transport problems and lack of infrastructure, but also due to cultural prejudices and resistance against giving birth outside the family circle. One of the ways to facilitate and encourage institutional deliveries is the establishment of ‘maternity shelters’ or ‘maternity waiting homes’ (‘casas de espera’ in Portuguese): facilities where future mothers can spend the last few days of their pregnancy close to a maternity hospital, so that they are assured of timely professional care during the delivery. This type of facilities exists in many African countries, but often the functioning is not optimal and the occupancy rate is much lower than it could be. ICRH launched a project in Kenya, aimed at promoting the use of maternity waiting homes and improving their functioning.
Project ongoing