We have joined up with Zithulele Hospital and the Health Department to provide self-catering accommodation on hospital land for pregnant mothers who are due to give birth imminently.

With a hospital catchment area of 1000km², it is extremely difficult for many mothers who go into labour at home to get to the hospital in time. There are just three ambulances serving the area, so most patients have to make their own way to the hospital. Public transport is either too expensive or non existent, and the sub-standard condition of the local roads makes travelling very slow.

As a result, we estimate that around 50% of women in our area give birth at home. Delayed presentation to the hospital accounts for almost one third of avoidable perinatal deaths at the hospital. No data exists for how many babies die at home. The Waiting Mothers Accommodation opened in June 2009. We now have clean, safe accommodation right next to the hospital for up to ten women.


We would like to thank those who funded the project, including Breadline Africa and the Rhodes Scholars Southern Africa Forum. This is a direct contribution to reducing the perinatal mortality rate in the area.

Through our Waiting Mothers Accommodation project, it is our aim that eventually all pregnant women in the area will have easy access to hospital facilities, including expert medical and midwifery care, facilities for resuscitation and Caesarian sections and prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV. At times when it is not filled by pregnant women, the accommodation will also be shared by local health care professionals, village health workers and family carers when they visit Zithulele Hospital for training workshops. Often unsung heroes, these are the people who provide vital community-based care to the terminally ill and other patients who are too poor or too sick to travel to the hospital.