Zim Hospital Charges Women $5 For Each Scream During Childbirth – TIZ

We came across an article on the Internet about a hospital said to be charging women $5 for every scream during childbirth.

Transparency International says it approached the Ministry of Health with no success. After approaching Deputy Prime Minister Thokozani Khupe, her call resulted in some progress.The article was based on a report attributed to Transparency International. As with most of those reports, the hospital was not named. Twitter users have since asked Transparency International Zimbabwe for the identity of the hospital and there is an interested in the matter from the Anti-Corruption Commission.

The latest report by the Zimbabwe Demographic and Health Survey found that the country’s maternal mortality rate is now 960 deaths per 100,000 live births. That rate is three times more than the global average of 287.

In some areas women have to provide their own materials for childbirth and prohibitive costs mean that some are now giving birth at home.

While there has been progress in health delivery it shows there is a lot still to be done.

There have been constant murmurs of free maternal healthcare but yah, well we know how that goes. It is tied in as lot of red tape.

Meanwhile real babies and real mothers are dying. It is so bad that a statistic recently showed that one woman is dying every minute from complications during childbirth in Africa. In Zimbabwe the statistic is ten women every single day.

Ten real people. We see them as statistics and they are shocking. Somewhere out there, it is a real person taking their last breath because of a system a system that is failing them.