Maternity Waiting Homes
Location: Peru
Peru has one of the highest rates of maternal and infant mortality in the western hemisphere. Among the mostly indigenous populations living in the Amazon jungle region of Ucayali the death rate among pregnant women and new mothers is alarmingly high—more than twice that of Latin America as a whole. But even that figure may be underreporting the true toll of maternal deaths due to poor documentation in the health care system.
Too many expectant mothers in Peru have little to no access to health care. Where health care facilities do exist in the rugged country, they are often too far for women whose only mode of transportation is a small boat, sometimes taking up to 12 hours to reach the closest health care facility.
In the community of Monte de los Olivos, as part of its Healthy Babies program, INMED built the first maternity waiting home (casa de espera) for pregnant women of the Ucayali region. Maternity waiting houses, built near health posts, allow expectant mothers and their families to reside there in the last stages of their pregnancies or during a high-risk pregnancy to ensure they are close to obstetrical care when labor begins.
Dina had delivered all her babies at home (one she delivered by herself) and was very hesitant to go to a health post this time around. Nonetheless, after much persuading and many conversations about increased risks, Dina and her husband did in fact come to the casa. When the time came, and her contractions became more intense, she moved to the health post, where she coped well with her contractions.
It eventually became clear that Dina’s baby was malpositioned, her contractions stopped altogether and her baby became distressed. She was quickly moved to a hospital where she had a Cesarean, and despite all the complications, gave birth to a beautiful daughter named Sayuri.
After being discharged from the hospital only two days later, Dina returned to the casa de espera requesting INMED’s services once again. Dina and her husband explained that they did not feel secure taking Dina to their home and small farm so far away so soon after the difficult delivery, and that they felt that she would only be safe staying at the casa for the following week.
It was a life-saving decision. On postpartum day three, Dina had unbearable pain from her incision, and between days four and five, she developed a fever and signs of infection. Had Dina been on their farm, they would have spent many hours traveling uncomfortably, either walking or using a motocar to reach the health post—or would not have attempted the trip at all until the symptoms were so severe that it might have been too late. Thankfully, since Dina remained at the casa de espera, she received the vital medical treatment she needed right away.
Healthy Babies
INMED’s maternity waiting homes are part of a larger initiative called Healthy Babies. With funding from the United States Agency for International Development’s Child Survival program, the Healthy Babies program was implemented in the remote Ucayali region of Peru’s Amazon jungle from 2006 to 2010.
The infant mortality rate in Ucayali is 47/1,000—almost one-third higher than the national rate, which is fourth-highest among nations in the Western Hemisphere. The Healthy Babies program worked to overcome barriers that resulted in the deaths of so many mothers and their babies, namely a lack of adequately equipped health facilities and access to them, a lack of transportation, a lack of communication (many indigenous women don’t speak Spanish) and a lack of knowledge and education.
Healthy Babies Report
Read volunteer Beth Tucker’s blog from the field
