By PPH Foundation
Improving maternal health in Kenya requires more than facility‑based care; it demands community engagement, women’s empowerment, and grassroots leadership. Kenya continues to face a high burden of maternal mortality, with an estimated 355 deaths per 100,000 live births, largely from direct obstetric causes such as postpartum haemorrhage (PPH). These deaths are often linked to delayed recognition of danger signs, late referrals, and limited access to skilled care. Community‑led programs have proven effective at strengthening health knowledge, creating supportive environments, and encouraging timely care seeking in ways that health systems alone cannot achieve.
Robust evidence from rural Kenya supports the impact of community health education groups. The Chamas for Change programme, a community health volunteer (CHV)‑led women’s group model in western Kenya, significantly improved maternal and newborn health outcomes. Women participating in Chamas were more likely to deliver in health facilities with skilled attendants, receive postpartum follow‑up visits, adopt contraception, and complete infant immunisations compared with those receiving standard home care visits, demonstrating how community group engagement can advance critical maternal health behaviours.
Across Kenya, other community initiatives have complemented formal services. Young mothers’ clubs in Nairobi’s informal settlements improved participants’ knowledge of PPH, birth planning, and family planning, indicating that tailored group education can build health literacy and encourage positive care‑seeking behaviours among vulnerable women.
Locally anchored organizations such as Women Engaged in Development (WED) have strengthened advocacy and community ownership under the Okoa Mama na Mtoto Initiative and the EWENE framework. In Makueni County, WED convened SMART advocacy workshops that brought together health leaders, Community Health Promoters (CHPs), Assistants (CHAs), and media partners to discuss maternal trends, address harmful cultural practices, and enhance household‑level data use; initiatives described by Prof Ann Kihara, Co‑Lead of the End Postpartum Haemorrhage Initiative, as essential to sustainable change. “CHPs and CHAs are the rubber that meets the road,” she has noted, highlighting the central role of community health workers in linking households with care and strengthening accountability for maternal outcomes.
Kenya’s broader collaborative advocacy efforts, such as the Collaborative Advocacy Action Plan (CAAP), show how county‑led partnerships and multi‑constituency alliances can reinforce community‑driven solutions for reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health. These platforms mobilise civil society and grassroots organisations to support shared agenda setting, resource tracking, and evidence‑based decision‑making that prioritises women’s voices.
Women’s organisations such as Maendeleo Ya Wanawake also play a long‑standing role in mobilising large networks of women across Kenya for health, rights, and leadership, strengthening mothers’ capacity to advocate for quality care in their communities.
When communities lead, and women’s voices and leadership are central, decisions that once delayed care become decisions that save lives. Community‑centred strategies build trust, improve health knowledge, expand support systems, and contribute to measurable improvements in maternal health outcomes. Ending PPH in Kenya depends not only on clinical excellence but on sustained, inclusive community action that empowers women, families, and frontline leaders.
Sources:
Community‑based women’s health education improves MNCH outcomes; Chamas for Change trial, BMJ Global Health.
Impact of young mothers’ clubs on PPH and birth planning knowledge, PMC.
County‑led maternal health partnerships, Kenya News Agency.
WED SMART advocacy and community engagement, WED reports.
Kenya Collaborative Advocacy Action Plan (CAAP), PMNCH.
Maendeleo Ya Wanawake women’s network in Kenya