Kenyan mother dies after bleeding for hours after childbirth

The white sand beaches of one of Kenya's most popular tourist areas line a region with one of the country's highest rates of deaths around childbirth

KILIFI, Kenya -- As Penina Zawadi was wheeled to the operating room for a cesarean section, she gave her mother her jewelry for safekeeping, along with a reassuring word: She would have a safe delivery.

An hour later, a nurse handed Esther Bendera her newborn grandson. But her daughter did not return. Her family said the 29-year-old Zawadi bled heavily after birth and was sent to another hospital to have her uterus removed, a last-ditch measure. She spent several days in intensive care before dying on June 23.

“She was bleeding so much, you would think it was water gushing out,” Bendera recalled. “After the second surgery, she never opened her eyes again.”

She said Zawadi, who had been healthy in pregnancy, spent four hours bleeding at Malindi Hospital awaiting a referral to the larger facility in coastal Kenya , Kilifi County Referral Hospital, an hour's drive on a potholed road.

This is part of a series on maternal mortality in sub-Saharan Africa , which has the world’s fastest-growing population and accounts for 70% of global maternal deaths. Around 180,000 pregnancy deaths are recorded every year across the continent.

The story of Zawadi, whose name means “gift” in Swahili, resonates with many families in Kenya’s largely rural Kilifi County, where maternal mortality rates are far higher than the national average. The deaths occur in the shadows of the area’s thriving tourism industry for foreigners and locals along the Indian Ocean’s white sands.

Kilifi County saw 532 mothers die for every 100,000 live births while the national average was 355 deaths, according to the latest government data in 2022. Most deaths are caused by severe bleeding, obstructed labor, high blood pressure-linked conditions such as preeclampsia, and infections due to unsafe abortions, according to reproductive rights organizations.

The deaths are also caused by shortages — of basic medical equipment in local clinics, of transport to better care, of information shared with pregnant women and their families.

In June, the Kilifi County government said it had recorded 81 deaths in the last year and a half, which it called progress. It pointed to recent changes such as increasing the number of healthcare facilities to bring services closer to mothers.

And yet some local clinics are still just outposts among the mud-walled homes, often stocked with little more than painkillers and antacid medications. Recent funding cuts by the Trump administration and other donors have deepened the challenges, especially for some of the poorest of Kenya's poor.

At a fundraiser held during Zawadi’s funeral to help offset expenses, most people could only contribute about a dollar each.

Her family said Zawadi had been generous and good-natured, eager to make jokes. After her coffin was lowered into the grave and coral stones were arranged on top, her firstborn son, aged 5, was led to it and wailed.

But the newborn son was considered a bad omen and could not attend the funeral.