Mama Ye Project Call Media To Prop Up Efforts In Maternal, Newborn Survival

Mama Ye Project has called on Media to keep alive issues of maternal and newborn survival for the country to continue registering progress.

Chatuluka

Country Project Leader of Mama Ye Campaign, Mathias Chatuluka made the call at a two day media orientation workshop on Thursday, aimed at equipping Journalists at national level to understand current situation of Maternal and Newborn and the interventions being carried out and in turn help to amplify the work of the MamaYe Campaign in Malawi.

Chatuluka said media is a key strategic partner in promoting survival of mothers and newborn.

He said media can play its role by reporting positive stories that highlights the progress in maternal and newborn survival through number of interventions by Government and various institutions including Mama Ye campaign.

He observed that at present, media is not giving much attention to issues of maternal and newborn and as such it is "rare to find such stories on front pages" in newspaper articles.

But Chatuluka encouraged the media to publicize positively the achievements being made on maternal and infant mortality and encourage safe motherhood.

Chatuluka highlighted that Maternal mortality rate in Malawi stands at 574 per 100,000 live births, a significant improvement from the situation ten years before when the mortality rate was 984.

He said improvements are partly owing to a number of factors including improved coverage for antenatal care by skilled health personnel. 

However, he said gaps still exist in terms of poorly equipped facilities, long distances to a health facility, inadequate human resources and insufficient funding.

But he said The Evidence4Action MamaYe Campaign has been working on a number of parameters to address the gaps and that most of its interventions are producing significant results which are helping in the reduction of maternal and infant deaths.