In March 2006, The Health Foundation launched a six-year programme dedicated to improving the quality of healthcare for mothers and babies in Malawi. These photos are from a subsequent project visit.
01 Waiting outside the hospital
02 Sanitation at Bwaila Hospital
03 Measuring foetal heart rates
04 The quality improvement team
05 A new incinerator at Kasungu
07 Identifying pregnant women
09 A properly swaddled baby
Patients and guardians waiting outside Bwaila Hospital. There are no facilities for carers, so they often cook for themselves.
Bwaila Hospital struggles with old buildings, sanitation problems and getting and maintaining the right equipment.
A clinical assistant measuring foetal heart rates at Bwaila Hospital. This sort of data was not previously monitored.
The Health Foundation Consortium’s quality improvement team at Kasungu District Hospital.
A new incinerator at Kasungu District Hospital. The Malawi government has decentralised hospital infrastructure spending to the district level.
The old incinerator.
In a locally generated idea, volunteers at Kasungu District Hospital identify pregnant women at the hospital door and make sure they are registered within three minutes.
Health workers at Bwaila Hospital caring for women who have just given birth. In the foreground, however, a baby has been neglected.
A new born baby properly swaddled and under a warm light at Nkhoma Mission Hospital.
