ORDINARY citizens are bearing the brunt of a poor healthcare system in Zimbabwe with nearly 300 babies and 54 women dying due to complications while giving birth in January 2025 alone.
Deputy Minister of Health and Childcare, Sleiman Kwidini, recently told Parliament that nearly 300 infants and 54 women died due to complications during childbirth in January 2025.
Harare recorded the highest number of neonatal deaths, with 111 cases, alongside 19 maternal deaths.
Kwidini stated that maternal deaths were primarily caused by surgical complications and underlying health issues.
“The maternal deaths as at January 2025 to date is currently set as 54. Moving back to 2024, I will start by Harare Province where we have maternal deaths of 19 and neonatal deaths of 111.
“The leading cause of death was hypertensive disorders and its complications, including renal failure. The other was post-partum hemorrhage post having an abortion, post normal delivery and also post caesarian section. Sexes was also a contributory factor. Some had underlying HIV and Diabetic Mellitus conditions. Other causes were a dilated cardiomyopathy,” said Kwidini.
The deputy minister added that neonatal deaths were mainly caused by respiratory complications.
“On neonatal deaths of 299, the leading cause was respiratory distress as a complication. Secondary was birth asplenium due to challenges with intercultural chair,” he said.
Zimbabwe’s healthcare system has come under intense scrutiny, with the government accused of neglecting the critical sector.
Critics have slammed the government for failing to allocate sufficient funding to hospitals and rural health institutions while embarking on profligacy buying luxury top-of-the-range vehicles for bureaucrats, among other hefty perks.
The situation has been exacerbated by the departure of healthcare workers to European countries due to poor remuneration.
Kwidini acknowledged that rural communities are disproportionately affected by the lack of adequate health services.
“It is very true that we are having challenges in rural areas, especially when one changes skills and also the road networks where our people should access medical attention quickly, especially the pregnant women.
“However, what we have done as the ministry now is, we are retraining because we know our trained midwives have migrated to what is called greener pastures, which gives us a burden as a ministry. So, we have reintroduced a massive retraining of midwives so that we can cater for those people in rural areas.
“We are also upgrading what we call primary care nurses in rural areas to be able to be midwives so that they can also render the services like the ones which were being given by those departed midwives.
“We have gone far further to deploy what we call mobile small scanning machines so that our pregnant women can undergo scanning, which is recommended at the initial stage where the pregnant woman is going to book for antenatal care so that we reduce those complications, especially on maternal and neonatal deaths,” Kwidini said.
