HELP US TO BUILD A LIFE-GIVING AND LIFE-SAVING MATERNITY UNIT
In 2015, the World Bank put the Maternal Mortality Rate for India at 174 per 100,000 live births. Being pregnant in India is risky business. The closest hospital to Cumbum (population of 150,000), where the Rhema Gardens is based, which has maternity facilities is around 45km away There are four private facilities. The Government facility is free of charge but has about 1,000 people a day with only five doctors. It suffers from chronic overcrowding which forces many of the poor to go into debt and fund private healthcare. A private checkup is about 1,000 Rupees (£10 / $14), a natural birth is about 10,000 Rupees and a caesarian 30,000 Rupees (£300 / $440). The average wage for rural people who work for daily wages is 150 rupees a day (£1.50 / $2.20). Having just 1 child can put that family into serious debt.
The Government hospital oversees 150 deliveries a month and 120 of these are caesarians. Caesarians are preferred by this hospital because they are quick and more patients can therefore be processed. However, they result in a lot of post-
natal complications for mothers.
The Plan
Hope Gardens wants to build a maternity and infant care centre above
their current medical centre. This would consist of facilities for checkups, an
operating theatre, birth ward and a two-bed unit for post-natal care.
Build costs:£40,000
Equipment costs: £25,000
We would like to support our team by helping raise an additional £20,000 to help with the first year running costs.
The great desire in surrounding villages is for natural births, which are mostly available in the Government hospital due to overcrowding.The medical centre currently sees some pregnant women but doesn’t have the facilities or staff to offer comprehensive maternity care.
In November 2015, the Chairman, Richard Lloyd, met three local residents who told him about the urgent need for maternity facilities - a mother of three and expectant mother (image left) as well as two other pregnant women. There is an urgent need for an emergency maternity critical care unit in the Cumbum area.
We are very grateful to a number of individual supporters and Trusts who have been instrumental in helping us fully cover the build costs and some of the equipment costs
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A larger number of poor women still will have no choice but to go through their pregnancies and deliveries without any medical care at all. Inadequate maternal health care can lead to serious medical complications and even death for the mother, as well as mental and physical disability in the new-born baby. Some of the orphaned and disabled children that Hope Gardens supports through residential care and education are there as a result of poor health care before, during or after birth. Medical conditions such as high blood pressure, gestational diabetes and anaemia, which are treatable in the developed world, can be fatal for mothers in India.
At present the only maternity services our Medical Centre can offer is pregnancy testing using home testing kits - the women who come to us cannot afford to buy these in the shops themselves. However, we have to refer them elsewhere for their maternity care.
Our Maternity Unit will be the only dedicated unit for both natural and Cesarean section deliveries and treating any emergency critical cases in the area.
“Ambika’s baby was delivered via c-section in the Government Hospital. Some days later Ambika attended our Medical Centre at the Rhema Garden with stomach pain - her stitching had not been done properly. She was referred back to the Government Hospital as we couldn’t treat her at the Rhema Garden Medical Centre, however she refused to return - she felt she hadn’t been given proper care there. ”
