Project Report
| Apr 20, 2017
You can improve maternal health in Cambodia
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Support single women during their crisis pregnancy
Dear Supporter,
April is World Health Month.
Cambodia has the highest infant and under-five mortality rates in the Indochina region, at 97 and 141 per 1,000 live births, respectively. Vaccine-preventable diseases, diarrhoea, and respiratory infections are among the leading causes of childhood death.
The Kingdom also has one of the highest maternal mortality rates, despite UN goals set up for the end of 2015, numbers have remained high.
A maternal death is any death that occurs during pregnancy, childbirth, or within two months after giving birth or terminating a pregnancy. Maternity-related complications are one of the leading causes of death for Cambodian women ages 15 to 49.
The vast majority of these deaths could have been prevented through good quality care during pregnancy, delivery, and the postpartum period.
“Even when mothers can access healthcare, the overall quality of care is deficient, magnifying the challenges women face in overcoming potential health problems during and after birth,” UNICEF said in a recent report.
We think that these statistics are not a fatality and we provide our service users with the best care available.
Samey's Story
Samey came to us late in her pregnancy. She is a young woman, with beautiful dark eyes, that reflected a life that was not always kind to her. Her baby bump was barely showing, but she was already in her last trimester when we met her. She had the usual aches and pains but the check-up and ultrasound showed nothing uncommon.
When she started going into labour, her sister took her to the hospital and stayed with her. Mother's Heart social worker, Somphors, and our midwife, Sreytouch, checked on her regularly. They made sure both nurses and doctors looked after her well. Hospitals are overcrowded and sometimes, their staff can be overwhelmed and forget to check on their patient.
Her delivery was long and she struggled through it. Our staff kept regular contact with her sister as she was getting weaker, losing the strength to keep pushing. Her eyes looked tired, the sweat on her forehead was making her hair wet. Her pillow was damp. Her eyes were starting to look hazy. Monitors showed that both mother and baby were in distress.
The doctors decided to perform an emergency C-section. Samey lost a lot of blood and needed multiple blood transfusions. After surgery, she lost consciousness. We didn't know if her baby was going to meet his mother.
Will he know the warmth of his mum's arms? Will he grow up in his own family? What would happen to that newborn child?
She finally regained consciousness after three painfully long days. Then, she was in and out of hospital still not recovering. After multiple blood tests, doctors discovered that she contracted a rare heart condition that could only be diagnosed during or after delivery. She spent the next few weeks recovering.
Mother's Heart helped with all her medical expenses and assisted her with food during her hospital stay, hospitals don't cater for their patients in Cambodia. She will probably never fully recover her strength, her heart functioning at 30%, but she knows that our doors remain open should she need advice, support and love.
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Statistics about our clients
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