A campaign against maternal mortality has gone viral on social media since on Thursday following reports of another woman dying at child birth.
Reports on Thursday emerged of a Brusubi woman dying after giving birth; it comes as the nation reels over the death of a Bakau woman after she reportedly encountered complications during birth and reportedly turned away by EFSTH.
A new campaign dubbed ‘Gambian Women’s Lives Matter’ got underway online on Thursday with users quickly changing their profile picture to either a new or already uploaded photo with the phrase ‘Gambian Women’s Lives Matter’ plastered under.
Activist Madi Jobarteh told The Fatu Network incidences of maternal mortality reflect the gross inadequacy of our healthcare system which is “deliberately underfunded in our national budget by both the Executive and the Legislature”.
“It shows a failure of leadership to manage and deliver healthcare to our people especially women and children. It further validated the protest by resident Gambian doctors in 2018 that our health system is weak, under-resourced and therefore deserves more attention,” he said.
He added: “Facebook campaigns are not enough. Every pregnant Gambian mother or child who die at birth is killed by none other than The Gambia Government and the National Assembly. They are responsible. That’s the bottom line.”
A Gambian women who joined the campaign is calling on Gambian men to do more for their wives than to just stop at getting them pregnant.
She argued: “Dont just get her pregnant and leave the burden on her, you have a vital role to play starting from week one to the last day, be concern[ed], be responsible and most importantly be a good husband.”
