Now, Safer Deliveries for Women in Tajikistan

January 16, 2018In just a year, home births in Bokhtar District have been cut in half.“I delivered my oldest daughter at home,” says Gulrukhsor Talbieva. “I’d never heard about the maternity hospital.”  Gulrukhsor Talbieva, now a 26-year-old mother of five, lives in Lohuti village in Tajikistan ’s remote Bokhtar district.She also delivered her second baby, a son, at home and had a terrible headache that lasted for days. She didn ’t know it at the time, but she had eclampsia, a life-threatening condition." I ' d never heard about the maternity hospital. "  “I thought that it is only natural to deliver at home,” she says. “Also, in my village it‘s not good to tell about difficulties during the delivery. So, I put up with the pain.”Today, thanks to the USAID-fundedFeed the Future Tajikistan Health and Nutrition Activity (or THNA), women like Gulrukhsor are learning about the risks of delivering at home and the benefits of giving birth in a prepared health facility with a skilled birth attendant.High maternal mortalityAlthough great progress has been made in the last decade, Tajikistan still has a very high maternal mortality rate with32 maternal deaths for every 100,000 live births.THNA is partnering with hospitals, primary health care centers, and communities to address the “three delays” that contribute to maternal mortality. These include delays in seeking maternity care, reaching a health facility, and receiving high-quality care once at a facil...
Source: IntraHealth International - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Source Type: news