Ministry of Health”/>
The Minister of Public Health, Hygiene and Prevention, Jean-Jacques Mbungani Mbanda said on Saturday July 23 that 9 health zones in the city-province of Kinshasa already offer free childbirth and prenatal and postnatal consultations.
He said this at the end of a field trip which aimed to ensure that women and newborns in the city of Kinshasa will benefit from free access to prenatal care, childbirth, postnatal care quality.
“Today, we wanted to visit all the health structures in Kinshasa East that contribute to free childbirth as well as prenatal and postnatal consultations. You know that since June 30, the Head of State has promised the Congolese population, starting with Kinshasa, free childbirth as well as consultations before birth and after birth. Today, we came to take stock of the situation. We found that 9 health zones in the city-province of Kinshasa already provide free childbirth and prenatal and postnatal consultations. We started with the hospitals of Tshangu”, stressed Minister Jean-Jacques Mbungani.
One of the women who testified in the images shared on the Ministry of Health’s Twitter account welcomes this initiative which allows her to save money.
“I was worried because last time I had a cesarean delivery. I had spent 6 months in the hospital for lack of money. This time when I arrived, I saw that there was a written mention: “free maternity”. After delivery, I realize that I have not paid anything. I’m going home soon”she rejoices.
Minister Jean-Jacques Mbungani and his delegation visited the Kikimi reference hospital center in the Mikondo/Ndjoko district, the Kingasani hospital center (formerly the Sisters’ Hospital), in the commune of Kimbanseke, the King Baudouin hospital and the Biamba Marie Mutombo Hospital, in the commune of Masina to the Sino-Congolese Hospital and the General Reference Hospital of N’djili.
During his address to the nation on June 30, President Félix-Antoine Tshisekedi had, on the health side, also mentioned the establishment of the program of free access to quality care for pregnant women, deliveries and newborn care in all of Kinshasa’s health zones and gradually in other provinces of the country.
The program of free maternity is already being tested in some health structures in Kinshasa. It will have to cost the Congolese government 35 million USD per year, in its experimental phase, according to the Minister of Health.
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