Variations in emergency care for severe pre-eclampsia in Uganda: a national evaluation study

Worldwide, 70% of maternal deaths occur in Sub-Saharan Africa. Approximately 10% are attributable to hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, primarily complications of pre-eclampsia. Timely and effective care improves outcomes, but this is not consistently available, particularly in low-resource settings such as Uganda.

We conducted a national evaluation of the provision of prompt and safe care for women with severe pre-eclampsia across all regions of Uganda. We explored the wider health system-related factors, eg supply availability, facilities, and emergency training drills, that may affect the ability of healthcare facilities to deliver optimal pre-eclampsia care.

A multidisciplinary research team carried out in-person, unannounced visits to maternity facilities across Uganda to assess the quality of care provided. Evaluations of facilities, staff interviews, and case notes reviews were performed.

75 maternity facilities were included from all regions of Uganda. Of these, 25% were unable to provide correct emergency care for severe pre-eclampsia, and 21% were unable to consistently provide delivery or referral for eclamptic seizure within 12 hours. Factors strongly associated with not providing optimal pre-eclampsia care were lack of staff training, lack of readily available clinical protocols, lack of antenatal education, lack of close postnatal monitoring and care that was not always woman-centered.

The key barriers associated with delayed or poor quality pre-eclampsia care across Uganda are potentially modifiable with strengthened clinical governance initiatives. Developing context-specific, standardized, national training and educational programmes could be effective in reducing rates of maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality from pre-eclampsia.