Highlighting Sepsis, a severe infection and one of the leading causes of maternal mortality in Sierra Leone, is crucial to understanding some of the challenges pregnant women are most prone to encounter in the wake of Sierra Leone’s current Ebola outbreak.
Highlighting Sepsis, a severe infection and one of the leading causes of maternal mortality in Sierra Leone, is crucial to understanding some of the challenges pregnant women are most prone to encounter in the wake of Sierra Leone’s current Ebola outbreak. Reducing infection through the provision of safe water and good hygiene practices could save at least 1 in 7 women who die daily in Sierra Leone from childbirth.Sierra Leone is currently struggling to contain the deadly Ebola virus outbreak that has claimed more than 400 lives according to the latest figures from the Department of Disease Prevention and Control. The Ebola outbreak has led to a drastic reduction in clinic attendance by both pregnant women and lactating mothers. Fear hampers clinical visits for most pregnant women and circulating rumours that Ebola injections are given to patients who attend clinics for care further perpetuates this. If there is a decrease in clinical attendance of pregnant women, this simply means we are retrograding; women are delivering with traditional birth attendants in their communities, therefore more susceptible to severe infections and other pregnancy complications.Sierra Leone’s already fragile health care system is furthered strained due to the Ebola outbreak; shortage in health workers, lack of trust in health care workers and limited resources means a natural decrease in quality of care for patients, especially mothers and babies. A look at the life-saving interventions for the prevention of sepsis which include: improve use of and quality health facilities for mother and babies; ensure clean birth practices are used by health workers; provide access to clean water; improve sanitation; encourage good nutrition and vaccination to prevent infectious diseases that can lead to sepsis. Mothers in Sierra Leone are disadvantaged accessing these services because the health facilities lack these worsen by the Ebola outbreak.As of July 2014 the MoHS’s Facility Improvement Assessment (FIT) supported by MamaYe Sierra Leone, report shows that no health facility in Sierra Leone currently meets EmONC status. This is a huge set back from 2013 when 8 facilities qualified for EmONC status – this is when health facilities are able to conduct life saving interventions for pregnant women and newborns. Sierra Leone under the current circumstance of Ebola epidemic has a long way in addressing these parameters. Even after the Ebola outbreak is contained it will take time to restore confidence to mothers about safety of the clinics. Therefore every effort by the government and partners for the provision of emergency obstetric and neonatal care (EmONC) that will make clinics safe to address the five main complications of pregnancy and childbirth: obstetric haemorrhage, eclampsia, puerperal sepsis, obstructed labour, and the complications of incomplete and unsafe abortions must scale up to ensure that we continue on track to save more lives of our mothers and babies.