As often in crisis, women and children pay the heaviest price. An estimated 5 million women and girls of childbearing age, and 1.7 million pregnant and breastfeeding women, have limited or no access to reproductive health services, including antenatal care, safe delivery, postnatal care and emergency obstetric and new-born care.
Only 50 percent of healthcare facilities are fully functional, and not many can provide specialised maternal and newborn health services. Moreover, the Covid-19 pandemic has aggravated the situation, with roughly 15 percent of the functioning health systems repurposed for COVID-19 treatment.
In order to help to fill this critical gap, CARE is providing support to reproductive healthcare through the rehabilitation of maternity wards at clinics, developing community approaches for safe home deliveries. We focus on building the capacity of frontline health workers along with training community health workers and midwives and equip them with much-needed midwifery kits and safe home delivery kits.