UNICEF

Maternal Health in Guinea, March 2016

The situation for new-born babies and their mothers in Guinea is extremely tough. Of every 1,000 babies born, 123 die before their fifth birthday. For every 100,000 live births, 724 women die.

Guinea has the world’s second-highest rate of female genital mutilation (FGM), after Somalia – 97% of women between 15 and 49 have been cut. Women who have had FGM are twice as likely to haemorrhage during childbirth, and haemorrhage is the leading cause of mothers dying in Africa.
Medicine is in short supply, and health workers’ salaries rely on selling enough of it. This leads to staff shortages; most health centres have one or two health workers when they should have eight.

UNICEF, supported with donations from the Spanish Government, have been supplying training and medical supplies to health clinics throughout the country in the wake of the Ebola epidemic which ravaged the region.

Female elders pose for photographs after attending a community meeting in Kondiadou near Kisidougou, Guinea. UNICEF, supported with donations from the Spanish Government have been supplying training and medical supplies to clinics throughout the region.
Sira Kond, who is 18 years old and pregnant with her third child, holds her three year old son at her home in Niandankoro, Guinea, on Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2016. Sira Kond had her first child when she was 12 years old. Early pregnancy and marriage is extremely common in Guinea and many girls in rural areas do not go to school. @unicef is working throughout Guinea to provide support for pregnant women.
A grandfather carries his grandson who is suffering from Malaria,AT the Doko clinic Siguiri, Guinea Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2016. UNICEF, supported with donations from the Spainish Government have been supplying training and medical supplies to clinics including this one throughout the region.
Nurse Iffono Ténin shows a pregnant patient Harriet Somadouno family planning option in a basket at the clnic in Kondiadou Kissidougou, Guinea Monday, Aug. 1, 2016. UNICEF, supported with donations from the Spainish Government have been supplying training and medical supplies to clinics like this throughout the region in the wake of the Ebola epidemic which ravaged the region.
Lay Mamade Doumbouya, a traditional healer, who is blind, poses for a photograph wearing his traditional clothese, at his home in Niandankoro, Guinea, on Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2016. In Guinea the majority of people in rural areas will visit a traditional healer before visiting a health clinic. During the #Ebola crisis many traditional healers died from ebola because people who were ill went to see them first, and they did not have any protective clothing.
A young girl carries nuts to sell in a metal tray on her head in Niandankoro, Guinea Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2016. UNICEF, supported with donations from the Spainish Government have been supplying training and medical supplies to clinics throughout the region.
A petrol pump is protected from the sun by an old sun umbrella in KanKan Siguiri, Guinea Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2016. UNICEF, supported with donations from the Spainish Government have been supplying training and medical supplies to clinics throughout the region.
Nantenin s mother carries away the shrouded body of her granddson at the Doko clinic Siguiri, Guinea Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2016. This is Nantenins second pregnany, her first baby also died in childbirth but was born at home. Guinea has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world.
A woman who has just given birth breast feeds her newborn baby on the floor because there is no bed avaiable in the delivery room at the Doko clinic Siguiri, Guinea Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2016. Guinea has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world.
Women wait to see a nurse in a health clinic in KanKan Siguiri, Guinea Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2016. UNICEF, supported with donations from the Spainish Government have been supplying training and medical supplies to clinics throughout the region.
Bernadette, a midwife, wipes down a newborn baby girl at the Doko clinic Siguiri, Guinea Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2016. Guinea has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. Behind her another midwife helps the mother who has had to give birth on the floor because the only delivery bed was being used by a mother who had just lost her child in labour. The body of the dead baby can be seen wrapped in a kanga on the table behind.
A woman waits to give birth with the body of a baby who died while being born lying behind her in a kanga, t at the Doko clinic Siguiri, Guinea Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2016. Guinea has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world.
Sayon Keita who is pregnant with her seventh child is examined by a mid wife at a health post near Doko, Siguiri, Guinea Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2016. UNICEF, supported with donations from the Spainish Government have been supplying training and medical supplies to clinics throughout the region.
Mamady Berete, a medic who drives the motorcycle ambulance, for the Doko clinic drives to collect a pregnant woman from a remote health outpost bring her to the Doko health clniic to Siguiri, Guinea Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2016. UNICEF, supported with donations from the Spainish Government have been supplying training and medical supplies to clinics throughout the region. They have also supplied 20 moto taxis to remote health centres to allow for pregnant women to deliver their babies safely in clinics.