Penina Zawadi died after giving birth to her son. An hour after her daughter was taken into an operating room for a cesarean section Zawadi's mother Esther Bendera was handed her newborn grandson. But her daughter did not return. Her family said she had been healthy but bled heavily during birth and and was sent to another hospital to have her uterus removed, a last-ditch measure.
She spent several days in intensive care before dying on June 23. She was buried on July 18, mourned by her family and friends. Nixon Charo, Zawadi's father says: "We expected her (Zawadi) to safely give birth. But the circumstances she found herself in during labour led to her death. Penina (Zawadi) started bleeding instead of getting labour pains.
It was a Saturday night and she was taken to Malindi General Hospital. When she got there, the doctors saw she was in a bad state and decided to operate and deliver the baby." Her family says Zawadi, who had been healthy in pregnancy, spent four hours bleeding at Malindi Hospital, waiting for the referral to the larger Kilifi County Referral Hospital, an hour's drive on a potholed road.
Sub-Saharan Africa has the world’s fastest-growing population, but at the same time accounts for 70% of global maternal deaths. Around 180,000 pregnancy deaths are recorded every year across the continent. Kilifi County saw 532 mothers die for every 100,000 live births while the national average was 355 deaths, according to the latest government data in 2022.
