maternal healthcare in Tanzania - the need for improved maternity services
In Tanzania, the estimated annual number of maternal deaths is 13,000. For the under-fives the number of deaths is 157,000 of which 45,000 are newborns. While Tanzania has had some success in reducing the mortality of children less than five years old, neonatal and maternal mortality has remained persistently high and virtually unchanged over the last ten years. The unmet need for reproductive health services and access to life-saving emergency obstetric care is enormous. Less than 6% of public health centres are providing comprehensive emergency obstetric care. HIV/AIDS prevention and care with anti-retroviral drugs is being expanded in the country, but implementation lags behind. In the Dar es Salaam region the general need for additional obstetric and neonatal services is high as there are currently only four hospitals serving the vast number of deliveries every year amongst Dar es Salaam’s three million inhabitants.
ccbrt and baobab maternity hospital
CCBRT has entered into a public-private partnership with the Government of Tanzania to establish a new 210 bed maternity hospital in Dar es Salaam. The government has provided land for Baobab Maternity Hospital (at the same site as CCBRT Disability Hospital) and will provide annual bulk grants for staff salaries and some supplies. CCBRT is responsible for the construction, management and service delivery of the new hospital. Baobab Maternity Hospital and CCBRT Disability Hospital will be the Regional Designated Hospital for Dar es Salaam region. Through this hospital and its community services, CCBRT will provide high quality health services where women and children survive childbirth without impairment. The aim is to identify and support vulnerable mothers and newborns and to assist with improving human resource capacity in the Tanzanian health system. The European Union has endorsed this project by recently approving a CCBRT proposal for funding intrastructure development and developing technical skills amongst health workers in Dar es Salaam. For more information follow http://www.baobabhospital.or.tz/
personal stories
After a very difficult labour, Zola was born eight weeks premature and later contracted yellow...
changing lives
Wandugu was playing with his father's tools when he poked himself in the eye. Unable to see, his parents brought him to CCBRT where an operation means that he can now see again properly.
- carried out 22 fistula surgeries
- performed 703 eye surgeries
- performed 43 cleft lip surgeries
- saw 341 patients for physiotherapy
- manufactured 149 new devices for people with disabilities
