I’m forever grateful my baby and I got the hospital care we needed – mothers across Africa need our help
When you’re pregnant, all you hope for is a safe birth, and a healthy baby.
And as mums, we all know how exciting and scary it is to have a baby. After experiencing my own pregnancy loss, I was nervous, but so excited and hopeful to welcome my first child into the world.
I loved feeling our tiny human kick and wiggle around – and I couldn’t wait to meet him.
After his birth, we both needed urgent treatment for infections and suspected sepsis. My perfect new baby boy was in the Neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of the hospital and needed extra oxygen for every breath he took.
Before I could even hold him, I, like all the other parents, visitors and staff, needed to wash my hands to prevent any infection spreading around the vulnerable newborns.
Thankfully, both he, and I, recovered well, and I will forever be grateful that we were both able to get the treatment we needed, when we needed it, in a clean and safe environment.
In healthcare, clean water, decent toilets, good hygiene are immediately lifesaving – protecting families at one of their most critical moments. They strengthen health systems and support frontline staff. Maternal sepsis is a life-threatening condition developed during pregnancy, childbirth, or the postpartum period, linked to unhygienic conditions and poor infection prevention. It is the third leading cause of all maternal health deaths globally.
This leaves babies exposed to deadly health risk from the minute they are born, and mothers in danger at one of the most vulnerable moments in their lives.
But every two seconds, a woman gives birth in a healthcare centre without clean water, functioning toilets or adequate hygiene.
Without access to clean water in delivery rooms, women can’t be assured that a pair of clean hands will deliver their baby.
When basic hygiene can’t be maintained, infections spread. When health staff can’t clean the delivery room properly, when there aren’t proper toilets, when there isn’t access to water; women and newborns are at risk.
WaterAid’s new report – launching alongside our new Time to Deliver campaign – has found that 36 mothers die every day from maternal sepsis in sub-Saharan African. This leaves mothers in the region almost 150 times more likely to pass away from maternal sepsis than a mother in Western Europe or North America. Shocking and unacceptable in equal parts.
As the UK sees a stream of news stories about poor maternal healthcare, of failures in care and preventable issues, we know that no country is immune. That sometimes heartbreak can be avoided. That the state of global maternal health simply isn’t good enough.
Women everywhere want to be assured of a safe and dignified birth, where they are listened to and their needs – that they and their baby are protected from preventable harm and illness – acted upon.
