By- Laws penalizing women/mothers who deliver at home

The trend of enacting by-laws that punish women who deliver at home is increasing . First ,It was Nwoya ,now Kabale  district ,

The Kabale District speaker Pastoli Twinomuhangi said on Wednesday that he is ready to present the draft by-law for the council’s consideration. This follows a recent survey in Rukiga, one of the four counties in Kabale District, where it was found that nearly one in every two expectant women that TBAs help to give birth, die.

Here is the link of the Newspaper article;

http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Kabale+considers+law+to+force+pregnant+women+into+hospitals/-/688334/1463854/-/iox4poz/-/index.html

I am don't think these laws will help because already the entire health system is weak forcing women to deliver from health facility per say will not help much if they reach there and find no supplies, drugs, few midwives, ambulance system down, and we all know most men are the key decision makers whether the woman should go to a health facility or to the Traditional Birth Attendants.

My dear blog followers, what do you think?

Advocating for Maternal Health services in our hospitals

I strongly agree only to add that our governments and other authorities need to understand that they have legal obligations towards their constituents.

 The right to maternal, child and reproductive health must be understood as requiring measures from the state to improve child and maternal health, sexual and reproductive health services, including access to family planning, pre- and post-natal care, emergency obstetric services and access to information, as well as to resources necessary to act on that information. 

The right to health, like all human rights, imposes three types or levels of obligations on the government of Uganda: the obligations to respect, protect and fulfill.

The obligation to respect requires the government of Uganda to refrain from interfering directly or indirectly with the enjoyment of the right to maternal health care. 

The obligation to protect requires the government to take measures that prevent third parties from interfering with the right to maternal health care.

Finally, the obligation to fulfill requires the government to adopt appropriate legislative, administrative, budgetary, judicial, promotional and other measures towards the full realization of the right to maternal health.

We must advocate for having the basic maternal health commodities in the hospitals.

Country Action Plan forWomen,Girls and Gender Equality and HIV

" In order to ensure that our responses to HIV promote the health, human rights,
security and dignity of women and girls", "a social revolution for women and girls", with specific recommendations being to:
a)Take specific measures, from households to parliaments, to empower
women and girls by reversing harmful gender norms; ensuring that legal
frameworks provide equal rights and equal access to justice and
security for women and girls; protecting the rights of women and girls
living with HIV, including their sexual and reproductive health and
human rights; strengthening social protection, care and support
programmes for children affected by AIDS; and scaling up programmes to
eliminate gender-based violence as a cause and consequence of HIV, and
that also engage men and boys;
b)Ensure national responses meet the HIV-specific needs of women and
girls across the span of their lives and actively confront and
eradicate gender inequality-driven gaps in access to HIV-related
information, services and commodities, including for women and girls
affected by humanitarian situations; and
c)Support the Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health and
the UNAIDS Agenda for Accelerated Country Action for Women, Girls,
Gender Equality and HIV, to deliver a comprehensive, integrated HIV,
TB and sexual and reproductive health package addressing the broader
health needs of women and children, including orphans, leveraging
services to prevent vertical HIV transmission as an entry point to
deliver a range of services to women, children and families.

  “That Government provides free HIV testing services and free ARVs for every HIV positive woman in the reproductive age as a strategy to secure an AIDS free generation and also does scale up the accessibility to family planning services throughout the country.”COMMENT: New science also shows that HIV treatment is HIV prevention. 

More ambitious efforts to initiate HIV treatment for pregnant women and women of reproductive age is a strategy that would dramatically reduce incidence of paediatric HIV and infant mortality; save the lives of pregnant mothers; and slash rates of HIV transmission through sex and through pregnancy, delivery and breastfeeding.

Studies also indicate accelerated treatment scale up would most likely be cost saving
due to reductions in incidence. WHAT DO WE THINK?