Crisis in the Womb: Zimbabwe’s Mothers, Babies Face Bleak Future Amid Donor Cuts
Zimbabwe’s health sector is staring down a dangerous cliff as pregnant women and newborns continue to bear the brunt of high maternal and neonatal death rates—a crisis set to deepen following severe international donor cuts.
Health and Child Care Minister Douglas Mombeshora, speaking at a recent press briefing, painted a sobering picture of the state of maternal health.
While Zimbabwe has made commendable strides in reducing under-five mortality over the past decade, the reality for expectant mothers and their newborns remains grim.
“Life expectancy has improved, now averaging 65 years, and even reaching 68 for women.
“Maternal mortality dropped from 525 to 363 deaths per 100,000 live births between 2012 and 2022.
“Under-five mortality also decreased to 39.8 deaths per 1,000 live births,” Mombeshora shared.
However, behind these numbers lies a harsh truth—deaths of mothers and newborns in health institutions remain worryingly high.
The Minister, notably, withheld exact figures, but the scale of the issue became clearer in Parliament recently when Deputy Health Minister Sleiman Kwidini revealed that January 2025 alone saw 54 maternal deaths and nearly 300 infant deaths from childbirth complications.
Adding fuel to the fire, crucial financial lifelines such as UKAID—responsible for supporting over two million Zimbabwean women and babies—have announced significant budget cuts, threatening to derail already fragile maternal healthcare services.
Zimbabwe’s health system, chronically underfunded and heavily reliant on foreign donors, now faces an uphill battle to keep mothers and newborns alive.
As development partners tighten their purse strings, the question lingers: will Zimbabwe’s healthcare safety net hold, or are the country’s most vulnerable destined to fall through the cracks?
