Several health survey found that the average health facility delivery rates in South Sudan catchment area were insufficient seemingly due to absences of human resources, high illiteracy in mothers, Cultural conservativeness, access hence placing south Sudan the worst unsafe country for woman to give birth in the world.
Majority of mothers in rural areas depends on culture embedded system of giving birth. Although both couple are the primary decision-makers about where a wife delivers. More men than women preferred home births, and they tend to have more harmful opinions than women about delivering in a health facility. Hence subjecting mothers to server pain and suffering and subsequent increase in cases of still birth in the country.
Aid agencies struggle to impart theoretical training and awareness campaign against the culture embedded societies. In rural south Sudan, the fear lack of privacy in health facilities, the perceived poor quality of care and surgical involvement remained a predicament for women to access health facility during birth.
Women overwhelmingly reported the husband makes the decision about when to seek care if his wife experiences complications. Men traditionally belief that if a woman experience problematic labour, it means her baby was conceived with another man. Before the husband allows his wife to be transported to the hospital, he must find the man who impregnated his wife and force him to offer sacrificial animal. Such traditional norms contributed to delays in seeking appropriate skilled birth services.
The maternal mortality ratio stands at 789/100,000 live births less than 30% of women are attended to by a skilled health worker and the rate of institutional delivery assisted by a skilled birth attendant is less than 20% according to the national family planning policy of South Sudan. By the age of 19, one out of three girls is already married or in union and the same proportion has already started childbearing
Narah Najere is 31 years mother of 6 children at Lopua in Kapoeta. She say, ‘’I Started giving birth in a village called Korkit where I lost a child who was to be my first born, when I move to stay in Lopua where I conceived and had my first living child with lots of challenges during labor and birth. I was assisted by neighbours because there was no medical facility in the area by then. The second child was a real trouble she exclaimed, the child delayed and I had to go through life threatening pain and by the grace of God the child came out successfully in the floor of my Tukul.
Narah said birth record in Kapoeta is remembered by the kind of pain a mother has undergone during birth and which place and area’’ ‘’Child birth in IR PHCU is lifesaving and healthy, Islamic Relief staff helped me in my fifth child, they assisted me during delivery and removing placenta, provided cleaning material , bed sheet and foot’’
A Primary health Care was constructed by Islamic relief with support from DEC 2017. Najere said initially she use to trek approximately 40 kilometre to access government hospital in Narus, many woman and children were dying on the way. Now it’s fine and safer, however, I urged IR staff to be accommodated within the facility so that they can attend to emergency cases
With scared resources, Islamic Relief support emergency health since April 2018 through provision of appropriate primary health care services to the conflict affected population in greater Baggari County, delivering maternal services remained dare due to categorically diverse reasons. For the last six years of conflict, the population have been displaced into deeper remote villages, tens and thirty kilometers away from their original homes and where service used to exist, majority of health facilities are non-functional, damaged during conflict and qualified health workers fled to major town because of insecurity.
Preliminary findings of 2018 Service Availability and Readiness Assessment (SARA) conducted by the Ministry of Health supported by partners; assessment of approximately (1,265) health facilities revealed specific service for antenatal and obstetric and neonatal care availability across the country. Out of 1029 health facility, (58% health facility offer antenatal services, 39% offer delivery services, and only 5% offer comprehensive emergency obstetrics & neonatal care services).