Women and children are often the worst affected during public health crises. The Aminata Maternal Foundation is working with the Aberdeen Women’s Centre in Freetown, Sierra Leone to ensure that vulnerable women and girls continue to have access to free maternal health services during this difficult time.
Previous public health and humanitarian crises, such as the 2014-2016 West Africa Ebola outbreak,1 have highlighted the severe impacts such crises have on maternal and child health outcomes, as well as providing guidance on the steps that can be taken to mitigate against them.
The basic rights of choosing when to have a child and the ability to receive professional, skilled care during pregnancy are key elements of protecting women’s and girls’ health. However, these rights are dependent on having access to effective and accessible health systems.
During times of crises, as governments adopt “all hands on desk” style policies, health care workers such as midwives and nurses are often re-allocated from existing maternal health services to other front line responses to the crisis. This can leave maternal services understaffed and unable to meet existing demand.
Concerns for maternal health in Sierra Leone during this pandemic
Women and children in remote communities are significantly affected, as health outreach services, such as visits by community health workers and broad scale government immunisation projects, are often cancelled or postponed.
Pregnant women and new mothers also face difficult decisions in these times. With reductions in household finances and widespread fear about the safety of health centres, ante-natal appointments may be cancelled and child immunisation appointments deferred, delayed or not taken up at all. Recent figures show that the only children’s hospital in Sierra Leone has already seen a 75% decrease in patient numbers.2
In countries like Sierra Leone, where maternal deaths3 account for over 20% of deaths in women of reproductive age,4 further disruption to usual services can have devastating effects. Early and sustained action to ensure continued access to maternal health services is vital to mitigating the short, medium and long-term consequences this pandemic may have on the lives of women and girls in Sierra Leone.
The Aberdeen Women's Centre's COVID-19 response
The Aminata Maternal Foundation is working with the Aberdeen Women’s Centre in Freetown, Sierra Leone to ensure that vulnerable women and girls continue to have access to free maternal health services during this difficult time. Measures to ensure physical distancing and to enhance personal hygiene are being taken at the Centre and staff, who were already familiar with enhanced infection prevention control procedures from their experience during the Ebola outbreak, have been given updated training on COVID-19.
In times like this, there is an additional burden of cost required to keep all patients and staff safe. Women, however, still need access to good quality services to deliver their babies safely and hygienically: the Aberdeen Women’s Centre is doing its best to continue to operate effectively while undertaking the enhanced COVID-19 preventive actions required. The Foundation welcomes any additional support you can provide at this time.
READ MORE ABOUT WHAT WE'VE BEEN UP TO
Better That Partnership with AMF
AMF PARTNERS WITH BETTER THAT We are proud to be a good cause partner with new online shopping platform Betterthat.com. Better That are on a mission to make shopping better by giving back to good causes with every purchase – hint hint, us! Get into the habit of purchasing through their site and they’ll donate […]
Read More
AGENDA SETTER OF THE YEAR AWARD 2021
AGENDA SETTER OF THE YEAR AWARD 2021 Aminata Conteh-Biger with Pip Marlow, CEO of Salesforce Australia and New Zealand We at Aminata Maternal Foundation are incredibly proud of our CEO and Founder, Aminata Conteh-Biger for winning the prestigious “Agenda Setter of the Year Award” at “The 8th Women’s Agenda Leadership Awards 2021” held last night, […]
Read More
Chrismas Appeal
Mabinty’s story is one of despair and hope. Mabinty was 16 years old and in Junior Secondary School when she was living with her sister and husband. She was brought to Freetown by her elder sister at the age of seven so that she could access education in the hope of a brighter future. One […]
Read More
We’ve done it!
And just like that, we’re finished! Over two weeks, hundreds of us have walked thousands of kilometres as we came together a community to walk side by side with mums and babies living in poverty in Sierra Leone. My heart is full thinking of Jakia who inspired this event. It is amazing to think that […]
Read More
You’ve set the pace
We can’t believe how much support we’ve already received for our #AMFWalkingChallenge2020. So many people have been willing to help us fundraise for the much needed maternal health support during the COVID-19 crisis in Sierra Leone. I am so touched by everyone’s words of kindness and open hearts to a cause that is so close […]
Read More
Aminata on BBC World Service
“A mother and a child dying, that never made sense to me. How can women still continue to struggle for something that is preventable? No mother or their baby should die in childbirth just because of poverty” – Aminata Conteh-Biger In an in-depth interview with BBC Outlook, Aminata talks about her childhood in Sierra Leone, […]
Read More
