The theater room at Mother and Child Hospital in Makueni, Kenya, was a buzz of activity when Devex visited the facility in December. Scrubbed up in green and blue, the hospital’s surgical team — made up of junior doctors — went about setting up for a cesarean section that would be undertaken later that afternoon.
In 2013, the government of Kenya scrapped delivery fees in all public hospitals and health facilities to encourage pregnant women to deliver in these facilities. Ten years down the line, Mother and Child Hospital now carries out an average of 300 deliveries every month with a third of these being done through cesarean section, according to Jhpiego, a nonprofit health organization affiliated with Johns Hopkins University.
“Deliveries can become complicated and once a delivery complicates, it will end up as a cesarean emergency,” Louise Nzilani, the nurse manager at the hospital said.