Kenyan women urged to plan families carefully

NAIROBI: Women of child-bearing age in Kenya have been urged to plan their families in order to have children they can cater for effectively.

They have been warned not to abuse the newly launched expanded free maternal health services by “giving birth every year”.

The remarks were made by Rahab Muiu, the national chairwoman of Kenya’s largest women’s movement, Maendeleo ya Wanawake, during the launch of the government’s flagship health programme dubbed “Linda Mama, Boresha Maisha” – Swahili for “taking care of women guarantees a good life for all”.

The launch in Nairobi was attended by hundreds of women from all over the country including some who had already benefited from the free maternity services offered in government and private hospitals.

Speakers hailed the new health programme as the most comprehensive maternity package the country had had.

Muiu said the introduction of this free maternity service would lift the financial burdens of families normally saddled with hospital bills they could not afford.

In addition to this, she said, women giving birth in hospitals would help the goal of reducing maternal and infant mortality, which was still high in Kenya.

She said women’s welfare should be seen in a wholesome manner and urged the government to also empower women economically and include them in decision-making positions.

At the same function the chairman of the senate committee on health, Wilfred Machage, said it was good to have expanded maternal health services, but patients would still suffer medical neglect because doctors and nurses were always on go-slow, or on strike.

Machage challenged the Ministry of Health to quickly resolve the labour crisis that has plunged the country’s health sector into dire straits, causing suffering to patients across the country. He said the senate’s health committee was prepared to mediate between all health sector stakeholders in order to find solutions to the perennial strikes by medics. – ANA