Hospitals in Malawi are expecting pregnant women to supply their own delivery kits – including unsterilised plastic sheets used during childbirth – amid a growing public health crisis aggravated by a budget squeeze.
An amaBhungane investigation revealed the widespread use of private delivery kits, which are seen as exposing mothers and newborns to postnatal infection.
Postnatal sepsis accounts for between a third and half of neonatal deaths in Malawi.
The funding shortfalls facing hospitals and clinics have been worsened by a development aid embargo by major donors in reaction to the plundering of government funds in the Cashgate scandal.
Read it at the M&G.
