How access to maternal and children's healthcare services is a gift that keeps on giving in Kalambani, Kitui County.

A drive along Mutha-Kalambani Road leaves no doubt that you are entering a remote part of Kitui County. Overgrown thickets line dusty roads with women walking alongside donkeys carrying jerry cans full of water beneath the scorching sun.?

But that is not all that Kalambani is known for. The village is famous for its rather rare spectacle. Many young children have a name uncommon among the local Kamba community: Maina.

In this remote countryside, residents hold dearly to the local culture that dictates that children are named after the husband’s lineage. In Kalambani, though, close to 200 local women have defied the local culture in honour of Joseph Maina, a local medic who delivered their children.

One such woman is Faith Katete, 40 years, a mother of 10 and a farmer at Kathyaka Village in Kalambani. Maina is her ninth child and the first of her children to be born in a health facility.

“I chose to name him after Maina, our doctor at Kalambani Dispensary,” she says.

The name, she adds, reminds her of the U-turn of her eventful motherhood journey.

She delivered eight of her earlier children at her home, then a Kinangoni Village resident deep in the Kitui countryside. She met her husband–Musyoki Kitheka– 20 years ago there. Her then-to-be husband reared goats and grew maize and millet, a new life as he was in hiding after cattle herders claimed his father’s life when they invaded Kalambani region.?

The threat of camel herders kept the residents up at night.

And this was compounded by another challenge: long treacherous distances to access healthcare services. Partly because many healthcare providers shudder at the thought of being posted in a region that is also sparsely populated. As a result, lack of access to family planning and antenatal care exists alongside reliance on traditional birth attendants considered experts because they were mothers and myths around modern contraceptives.

Faith shares: “At Kinangoni Village, the only dispensary was many kilometres away and if any woman could trek and reach it, it was not guaranteed the nurse would be available.”

Reflecting on her first experience as a mother she adds: “I was given bitter traditional herbs to induce labour. The pain started at 7pm and I began to bleed, but it was only until the next day at 4 pm when I gave birth. In my consecutive pregnancies, if complications arose, like retained placenta, the traditional birth attendant would insert her hand into the uterus to manually remove it.”

Move to Kalambani Village

Faith and her growing family would relocate to Kalambani after camel herders from neighbouring Tana River County attacked their village in Kinangoni, searching for water and pasture for their animals.

While settling in their new home in Kalambani Village, she heard terrifying stories of women who died while giving birth or those who miscarried on their way to the hospital. But the reality of the risks of motherhood hit closer home when her sister-in-law had a stillbirth.

Faith, then four months pregnant with her ninth child, had her first encounter with CMMB’s Community Health Volunteers (CHVs). She learnt from the CHVs, her neighbours, about the importance of attending antenatal clinics. This alongside ensuring that each homestead observes proper nutrition, has a pit latrine and practises proper water safety and sanitation practices like washing hands with clean water and soap.

An uphill task, Faith admits, given that she has 10 children to feed while her homestead requires at least 80 litres of water daily. They draw water from a hand-dug well at the bed of the River Thua, not too far from her homestead. Water has become hard to come by in recent years due to prolonged drought, making farming unreliable.?

One less worry

But Faith is glad that now access to healthcare, especially maternal and for her children, is one less concern off her list.

A nurse at the Kalambani Dispensary opened her eyes to a new world: care during pregnancy, immunizations for children under five years, proper nutrition for the expectant mother and why hospital deliveries were crucial. She also learnt about signing up for the Linda Mama social protection programme that provides state-funded antenatal, hospital delivery and post-natal care services.

When she went into labour, she walked for at least an hour to the Kalambani Dispensary, where Maina, the local medic, delivered her baby on a couch screened off with a curtain in the consultation room because that was the only space available. She later showered in the area that was both a latrine and bathroom.?

“Two hours later, I had to walk back home, as there was no space to rest for overnight observation, and other people were also in line seeking health services,” Faith recalls.

This has since changed as the facility now has a state-of-the-art fully-kitted maternity wing, following CMMB Kenya’s intervention, much to the joy of the local women.

Her experience with her tenth pregnancy was different.

“I went to the antenatal clinics once I discovered I was pregnant, as guided by the CHV in my area. When I got into labour, the CHV alerted two people: a boda boda rider, known as a skilled birth attendant champion, tasked by CMMB to rush pregnant women like me to the hospital; and the nurse in Kalambani,” she said.

While at the facility, she was observed to ensure she was progressing well and her baby would be born under the hands of skilled medical personnel. Once she delivered, she got an injection to stop post-delivery bleeding.?

Faith says with a beaming smile: “I stayed at the facility for observation and was discharged after the second day. I even took a shower in a proper bathroom.”