Sierra Lyoa Medical Foundation

Approximately every two minutes, a mother dies trying to give life, a death that deemed preventable using evidence based high impact interventions. 99% of maternal mortality is occurring in low and middle-income countries, with Africa being the hardest hit region. 

Sierra Leone- a country that is still facing challenges of stretching limited resources to provide appropriate health care for its inhabitant is one of the hardest hit country. The high maternal mortality fight in Sierra Leone has been a major battle front for the country and its bi-literal partners. 

According to the newly published statistics, the global average maternal mortality ratio is estimated to be 211 deaths per 100,000 live births. Sierra Leone is still recording about 1,120 maternal mortality per 100,000 live births, more than five times the global average. 

When comparing Sierra Leone with its neighboring countries in the Mano River Basin, Sierra Leone is having about twice maternal mortality ration than Guinea, Liberia, and Ivory Coast per 100,000 live births (Figure 1A). Furthermore, when placed in the middle of other world giant, Sierra Leone is having over 60 times higher maternal mortality ratio than United States, 160 times United Kingdom and Germany and over 180 times that of Australia (Figure 1B).

In 2015, every 73 live births in Sierra Leone, one woman died due to maternal causes, with maternal deaths accounting for about 36 % of all deaths of women aged 15-49 years with the country’s stillbirth rate is as high as 25 per 1,000 live births. Therefore, at the current mortality ratio, 6 % of women in Sierra Leone will die from maternal causes during their reproductive life. 

     Figure 1: Maternal mortality ratio data extracted from UNICEF published data September 2019. (A) Sierra Leone among Mano River states and (B) Sierra Leone among developed countries.

The strategic question is how to organize maternal health care most effectively when resources are severely limited

The Sierra Lyoa Medical Foundation SAFE BIRTH INITIATIVE program is employing two complementary strategies to address maternal mortality and morbidity in Sierra Leone:  

1. Reducing the risk associated with pregnancy by employing a Prenatal Outreach Program.  

2. Reducing the exposure to the risk through education directed towards spacing pregnancies, avoiding them during incredibly young or older ages, and limiting their total number through promoting birth control.  

Both strategies are complimentary and would be implemented together to target the following pregnancy related risk factors: