By Tabora Bojang
Health Minister Dr Ahmadou Samateh revealed to the National Assembly yesterday that The Gambia remains one of the lowest when it comes to maternal mortality in Africa and that they have achieved a more than 50 per cent reduction in the past two years.
“Even though we want to bring it to zero, no country has been able to make it zero. Some developed countries are about 10 per cent,” he stated.
Giving statistics to lawmakers, he said a total of 1,178 birth-related deaths were recorded in public health facilities from 2014 to 2025.
He disclosed that from January to December 2025 alone 130 maternal mortalities were recorded translating to 129 deaths per 100,000 life births.
He provided the breakdown as follows; 2014 – 106 maternal deaths from 52,565 life births; 2015 – 65 deaths from 42,307 life births; 2016 – 70 deaths from 49,225 life births; 2017 – 118 deaths from 53,846 life births; 2018 – 78 deaths from 59,687 life births; 2019 – 100 deaths from 64,291 life births; 2020 – 79 deaths from 63,660 life births; 2021 – 135 deaths from 65,814 life births; 2022 -122 deaths from 75,186 life births; 2023 – 156 deaths from 76,477 life births; 2024 – 125 deaths from 72,507 life births; and 2025 – 120 deaths from 80,720 life births.
Minister Samateh however noted that this figure excludes deaths recorded at the main referral Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital EFSTH from 2014 to 2020.
Minister Samateh pointed out that the ministry is implementing multiple programmes to strengthen the country’s resilience. “The care patients receive is greatly dependent on the capacity of caregivers. And for that reason, we are investing heavily in capacity building. At the EFSTH, we are training obstetrician gynaecologists to fellowship level. We have brought in senior consultants from the region to provide services and train our doctors and medical students. And we are training nurses to now become midwives to a degree level,” he stated.
