Janet Museveni displays a T-shirt at the launch of Global Action for education. Photos by Presidential Press Unit.

Kampala, Uganda. – State Minister for Karamoja Affairs and Ruhaama MP, Mrs. Janet Museveni, has appealed to women as mothers to be champions of safe delivery.

“Whereas there are other players in safe delivery, the resultant effects of death or injury of pregnant mothers go down to women and their children,” the First Lady noted

She appealed to mothers to always do what it takes because it is their lives and that of their children at stake during pregnancy and delivery.

Mrs. Museveni, who is the patron of safe motherhood in Uganda, made the remarks while closing a two-day workshop of village health teams from Isingiro and Ntungamo districts at Ntungamo districts headquarters on Wednesday.

“My dear brothers and sisters I am not a medical professional myself, but I am always driven by the fact that I am a mother myself who cannot rest when fellow mothers continue to die [while] performing their God-given duty to bring life to the world,” Mrs. Museveni told participants.

“I hope my fellow mothers could take it seriously and save themselves and give messages to save their fellow mothers,” Mrs. Museveni told participants that she had her own children in exile but did everything she could to deliver them safely.

She also urged men to honour their God-given responsibility as heads of households and caretakers of families and support their wives during pregnancy and child delivery in order to save lives.

“If husbands gave their wives the support they deserve during these difficult times, maternal death could be minimized,” she said.

Mrs. Museveni strongly appealed for the strengthening of family incomes noting that an economically empowered family was likely to control maternal and infant mortality than a poor one.  She also called on all people to embrace girl child education as one of the remedies to maternal mortality. Mrs. Museveni stressed that an educated mother was more likely to safeguard herself against maternal death than one who is not educated. She called on Village Health Teams to embrace and implement properly the skills acquired in seminars because they will not only help them to live better but also assist them to map out survival of future generations.

Ntungamo Residence District Commissioner, Peter Rwakifari commended the National Resistance Movement government and Mrs. Museveni for prioritizing maternal health and for supporting health service delivery at the grassroots level. He said that Village Health Teams are the real answer to the health needs of an ordinary citizen who may not easily access health facilities.

The seminar that was jointly organized by the Office of the First Lady, the Ministry of Health and Population Secretariat in conjunction with several development partners, tackled subjects such as maternal health, family planning, adolescence issues, water, sanitation and hygiene, the causes and effects of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, malaria and Tuberculosis control.

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