Residents of Njiru now want a theater constructed at the Njiru Level 4 hospital to reduce the cases of referrals.
The hospital which is located along Kangundo road in Nairobi opened its doors to the public in 2007.
It opened as a dispensary and has grown tremendously to a level 4 facility, over what the management attributes to quality of service provided.
The hospital serves a population of 101,186 and offers a range of services among them maternity services, immunization, family planning, growth monitoring, nutrition, youth friendly services, laboratory services the maternal and child health services.
The maternity wing which opened in 2019 has so far delivered 2,656 babies in a span of two years; a figure the hospital in charge Peter Njoroge says could be higher if theater services were made available.
“When the mother is coming in and the baby is not able to come out because of a small reason which just requires a theatre, that is something that we can actually do, we don’t need to refer,” Njoroge said on Wednesday.
“If we handle all cases that present to us in a month our deliveries would be more than 300 in a month including those Caesarian Sections because we have seen that antenatal cases only, pregnant mothers coming to us in a year are more than 8,000,” he added.
The maternity wing has received a major boost after the Sportpesa Foundation donated an additional bed, pushing the total number of delivery beds to three.
According to Njoroge, the facility is supposed to deliver in terms of targets 270 to 300 deliveries per month but is delivering 150 to 200 which is still low considering we still have mothers delivering in our community.
The hospital has a total staff about 73 of all cadres.
According to data from the facility, the hospital offers services to 33,493 women of reproductive health age group of 15 to 49 years translating to 31 per cent estimated pregnant women.
“What gives us motivation is that we give quality services and all the mothers who have passed through our hands have gone home with bouncing babies as they have all gone home alive,” Rose Kivai, a nurse at the facility said.
According to the World Health Organisation, maternal mortality in Kenya remains high at 488 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births.
While this is below the Sub-Saharan average of 640 deaths per 100,000, Kenya experiences a very slow progression in maternal health.
Most maternal deaths are due to causes directly related to pregnancy and childbirth unsafe abortion and obstetric complications such as severe bleeding, infection, hypertensive disorders, and obstructed labor.