More children and mothers are surviving in Cambodia now.

January 2012: When 17-year-old Vay Puth died in childbirth in 2008, she was the 8th such victim in Beng village that year alone. Her baby also died after complications that the traditional midwife – untrained in modern techniques – was unable to resolve. The nearest health clinic was miles away along poor roads.

With a maternal mortality rate as high as 500 per 100,000 live births in recent years, this was a familiar story in Cambodia, where having children is so perilous that women refer to it as “crossing the river”.

But just 3 years since Vay Puth’s tragic death, things have changed in Beng and no more women or babies are dying. 

A simple solution

One reason for the turnaround, says village chief Chhout Maich, is the government-led health education effort to bring down maternal and infant mortality rates in line with the Millennium Development Goals*.

Another factor has been a Plan Cambodia-supported health clinic that opened in 2009 in nearby Prey village, operating 24 hours a day and serving 14,000 people from 12 villages.

Women used to deliver at home using traditional midwives, but now almost everyone gives birth at the health centre.

Recent figures indicate that efforts by the government and NGO partners are paying off. The Ministry of Health now says the maternal mortality rate is 206 per 100,000 live births and the rate of infant deaths has also declined from 66 per 1,000 live births in 2005 to 45.

Signs of success

At Prey health clinic – which in 2010 was recognized as the best in Siem Reap province – more than 450 women have given birth since 2009, says a beaming nurse Naroth Nan. All survived, as did their babies.

The government pays the clinic’s operating costs and staff earn a $15 bonus per baby that survives. Patients who cannot afford the $5 fee are treated for free, he adds.

The clinic also vaccinates infants, provides nutritional supplements for the mothers and works with village-level health committees.

As for the traditional midwives, a 2009 government edict banned them from performing home deliveries, so the clinic trained them to spot the danger signs of pregnancy instead, says Naroth.

“And since Prey health centre was built,” he says proudly, “there have been no more mother and infant deaths in this area.”