Evelyn Lirri
6 September 2008
Kampala — Frequent pregnancies occurring among Ugandan women as a result of a high fertility rate is leading to maternal exhaustion, health and demographic experts have warned.
According to Dr Olive Sentumbwe, who is in charge of Family Health and Population at the World Health Organisation, the high fertility rate standing currently at 6.7 in Uganda is among the highest in the world and is leading to mental and physical fatigue in women.
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"The implication of high fertility to women's health is that it increases chances of maternal ill health and death, because in Africa every pregnancy carries a very high risk of death because of our poor health and service delivery," she said.
"This risk of maternal death increases with each successive birth after the fourth birth," Dr Sentumbwe explained. She said the risk is even higher among young adolescent girls who become pregnant because their bodies are often not physically mature enough to handle the stress of pregnancy and child birth.
Statistics from the 2006 demographic and health survey, conducted by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics indicate that the average Uganda woman marries at the age of 18 while men marry at the age of 22; consequently this leads to many young mothers who have no access to reproductive health services including family planning.
Yet, according to Dr Sentumbwe, contraceptive use reduces maternal mortality and improves women's health by preventing unwanted and high risk pregnancies and reducing the need for unsafe abortions Uganda loses between 600 and 1000 women annually from complications of unsafe abortion.
Currently the maternal mortality rate stands at 435 deaths per every 100,000 live births while infant mortality rate is at 76 deaths per 1000 births.
Although millennium development goal five aims at reducing by 75 percent, by 2015, the number of mothers who die during child birth, experts warn that the target cannot be met without urgent action to address issues like family planning.
To be able to meet the MDG target, it is projected that Uganda's maternal mortality rate would be at 132 deaths per every 100,000 live births by 2015.
Dr Sentumbwe said investing in and using contraceptives can prevent unwanted pregnancies which will consequently help reduce the toll of unsafe abortions.
Mr Patrick Mugirwa, a programme officer at the Partners in Population and Development Africa regional office in Kampala, says with the current fertility rate, Uganda's population, now estimated to be over 30 million would surpass 60 million in 2030.
He says a lower fertility rate and slower population growth can temporarily increase the relative size of the workforce.
"With fewer dependent children and older dependants relative to a larger, healthier working age population, countries can make additional investments that can spur economic growth and help reduce poverty," Mr Mugirwa said.
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