The maternity ward of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital is unusually quiet.

The women here have been struck with grief. The pain and fear in their eyes tells a story. One of them was rushed to the delivery room this morning.

But the midwives only returned with a beautiful baby boy. The mother didn’t make it. She is dead.

Another woman, 31-year-old Akua Barnieh was admitted at the hospital two days ago. Her delivery date had passed and the doctor felt the best thing to do was to closely monitor her condition for safe delivery.

Now the young HR professional is dead. Her husband, Samuel Boakye, is shattered. He can barely stand – he is drenched in his own sweat. He looks confused, angry and sad all at the same time.

“I don’t know what to say. It is just painful. Too painful and no one should wish this for their worst enemy. I don’t know whether or not to believe she is dead…how, how can such a strong woman die just like that,” Boakye said.

A report from the United Nations says over 3000 women in Ghana died from pregnancy and childbirth-related complications in the year 2013. Close to 10 women in this country die every day from these complications.

Traditionally, maternal mortality has largely been seen as a problem of the unlettered or illiterate. It is more pronounced in the rural areas where it is difficult to have easy access to health care. But we find that the highly educated and elite too are losing their lives to pregnancy and to child-birth related complications.

In this week’s Hotline documentary titled Dying City Mothers, Chantelle Asante speaks with relatives of women who have died from pregnancy and birth-related complications in urban centers where clients expect to receive the best of care.

Having a baby should be a time of great joy and hope. But every year across the world, many women lose their lives to the very experience that is expected to bring this joy - childbirth.

Many of the women die whilst in labour die at referral hospitals. They are referred as emergency cases from other hospitals and clinics. But according to doctors, most of the women die within 24 hours.
 

Maternal mortality is a fight and it must be fought and won. These stories are shared by many families.

 

Listen to the audio