10 Women Dying Every Day During Child Birth

Deputy Prime Minister Thokozani Khupe wants a major revamp of Zimbabwe’s healthcare system on the back of alarming maternal death statistics.

It has emerged that the number of women in Zimbabwe dying during delivery has increased from 725 deaths for every 100 000 live births to 960 deaths for every 100 000 live births. This means, roughly 10 women are dying every single day during child birth.

DPM Khupe called for the removal of maternal fees as part of the revamp and called for the disbursement of money from the Multi-Donor Health Fund. The government said this year that there would be free healthcare for pregnant women and the elderly by May.

The stats are alarming and we think that drastic measures need to be taken to deal with this. We really can’t deal with 10 of our mothers dying every year and mostly because of a lack of access to healthcare. Every human being has a right to access to healthcare. If we cannot provide that right, especially for the most vulnerable members of our society then we don’t know what we are doing.