Three women in Elbarde, a remote village in southern Somalia’s Bakool region, died this month due to lack of access to proper medical treatment during childbirth.
Women in the district have access only to traditional birth attendants, who are unable to help in cases of complications during or after delivery.
Mohamed Isaq Amin took his wife to hospital after she had been in prolonged labour for three days. The birth attendants in Elbarde said they could not help.
He took her by taxi to Godey, 140 km away across the border in southern Ethiopia, seeking medical attention at the closest modern hospital where the charges are reasonable.
“It was late, at around 3:00 am, she started having serious labour pains and we called the traditional midwives. They couldn’t do much, so we hired a car as there are no ambulances here. Unfortunately, as soon as we arrived [in Godey] she died.”
The fastest vehicle leaves Elbarde in the morning and reaches Godey at night. The trip costs around $500. Mohamed earns 100,000 Somali shillings ($4) a day working in a garage so the trip was already way more than he can afford.
Nasro Sheikh Ismail, one of three traditional birth attendants working in Elbarde, said she learned her trade through apprenticeship.
Nasro told Radio Ergo that she knew of 26 women in the area who died in childbirth related complications since January this year.
Some died on the road whilst being rushed long distances to a hospital, while others died within the village.
“We are midwives, we can only do so much, we can’t do blood transfusion, we can’t save people. The last two deaths were a week ago. There are some women who were losing blood profusely and when they are transported to the hospitals they die of shock before they make it to the hospital. We can’t do much in such emergency situations,” Nasro said.
Elbarde general hospital collapsed after the demise of the central government in 1991.
Ironically, Nasro herself is able to afford professional treatment and delivered her own babies in Godey.
“The doctor operated on me when I was giving birth to my first born in Godey, and I also underwent two other successful operation since then,” she said.
Meanwhile, Dool Hussein Mohamed, a mother of four, is six months pregnant and very worried about the pending birth of her fifth baby. She remembers the problems she encountered in her previous childbirths. She was in labour for three days with her last born and suffered from placenta retention afterwards.
“I am very worried now and I don’t know where else to go since I don’t have enough money,” Dool said.
