Bocking - four delays

We talk a lot about accountability, but accountability means different things to different people. It might mean, you know, for some people, are the funds that are being donated, or given for developmental work, is that actually reaching the people that it need? But Astrid and her colleagues have really brought forth what is now called “the fourth delay”.  So there’s three delays when it relates, when we think conceptually about maternal mortality. The first delay is women accessing health care. And whether they, and that’s whether do they want to actually seek that care? The second delay is the geographic challenges. In many parts of the world it’s difficult, parts of Canada, very difficult for women to get to a health facility for their care. That’s the second delay. The third delay is when they actually get to the facility, are the providers there trained in the ability to provide help with safe delivery, for example, or safe newborn care? And do they have the supplies? So those are the three. The fourth delay is the community taking responsibility for the health and well being of pregnant women and their children. So that’s really one of the exciting things that this program has been has been developing. So reducing maternal mortality by 50% in the course of a couple of years through that combined interventions, I think is one of the most gratifying and encouraging things that our involvement in AMPATH has had.