Men have been encouraged to play their part in ensuring safe motherhood for pregnant women in order to reduce rising maternal deaths in Uganda
The call was made on Friday, July 11, 2025 during a one-hour fellowship organized by the Rotary Club of Kabwohe at Sun Beach hotel in Kabwohe Town, Sheema Municipality.
While addressing the attendees, Guest Speaker Pearl Agatha Kwikiriza, a senior midwife in Sheema District and the Ankole Local Maternity and Neonatal Systems Secretary for Women and Children Affairs, told attendees that men must support their pregnant spouses at every step of the way until they deliver safely.
Kwikiriza encouraged men to financially empower their pregnant spouses such that they can be self reliant and take charge of household needs in their absence.
She tasked local leaders, the Police and Community Development Officers to sensitize men on their roles in ensuring safe motherhood. “men need to empowerment through sensitization to educate them about the role they play in ensuring safe motherhood. Going for antenatal care with your pregnant spouse doesn’t make you less of a man”
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Meanwhile Amon Namara a Rotarian with the Rotary Club of Kabwohe, revealed that the fellowship intended to educate men on their roles in reducing maternal deaths in Uganda. He implored men to always accompany their pregnant spouses to the hospitals for antenatal care and during delivery on top of proving other relates support. “the fellowship aimed at educating men on the roles they can play to curb high maternal deaths in Uganda. “
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Speaking to this reporter shortly after the fellowship, Joash Agaba, a husband, father and Rotarian underscored the importance of expectant parents attending antenatal care checkups together, noting that this gives them a chance to know their HIV/AIDS status.
Agaba attributed the rising number of maternal deaths partly to teenage pregnancy, warning men against engaging under-aged girls in sexual activities and abandoning when they get them pregnant. “one the reasons why maternal deaths are on the rise is because men continue to sleep with girls under 19 years and later abandon them when they get pregnant”
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