We are traveling to West Pokot, Kenya on behalf of the nonprofit, Saving Mothers. We will be going with a group of medical professionals to provide gynecologic and urological surgical training, ultrasound training, and traditional birth attendant training. We will not only be working within Kapenguria Hospital, but also at three satellite clinics in the area where we have distributed ultrasounds.
Pregnant people and mothers will benefit from our services. In Kenya, the maternal mortality rate is extremely high at 342/1000,000 live births. The preterm birth rate is high (12.5%), the rate of at home deliveries is 40%, and antenatal care (ANC) is largely underutilized. In West Pokot, this underutilization is even more severe due to the geographical isolation of the county, and lack of access to services. While health statistics for this region are unreliable, available indicators from the local Ministry of Health (MOH) suggest that only 50% of pregnant women attend even one ANC visit, and close to 75% of women deliver at home without qualified medical assistance.
We expect to perform gynecological surgery on 40 patients, deliver lessons on hypertension and medical history taking to seven traditional birth attendants, and train about 10 local health professionals on ultrasound training.
During our April trip to Kenya, the team performed gynecologic and urogynecologic surgery on 38 patients. We also trained 3 nurses on ultrasound, and 6 traditional birth attendants on blood pressure reading and taking patient history.
