Women's health in east Africa

The MCH/FP services for women in Africa offer today limited services that do not cater to the multiple and complex problems that women face during their long productive lives. Many women are infertile, many suffer and die from abortions, many cannot get access to safe contraceptive technology or safe and sterile delivery services. At the same time women are more stressed than ever before with a proletarianisation process that has left them very often as the sole providers for their households, and with an intensified role in agricultural production. The health needs of women have thus intensified and become increasingly shaped by their growing role in production and in the social reproduction of the household. The paper examines the changing health needs of women in East Africa, why MCH/FP health services have failed to meet these needs, and identifies the types of services that women increasingly require.