Background
Eclampsia is a pregnancy-related disease which causes seizures and can be fatal. At Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi, eclampsia is the most common cause of death among pregnant women, but the process of admitting and treating women with eclampsia is often inefficient. Lack of standard protocols, delayed medication and not enough emergency equipment are a few of the factors that lead to unpredictable management of eclampsia with widely differing outcomes.

About the project
This project was created to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity caused by eclampsia at Kenyatta National Hospital. The project team organised a series of trainings on management of eclampsia for doctors and midwives at the obstetrics/gynaecology unit and at the accident and emergency unit. An eclampsia management protocol was developed and revised together with the hospital staff. The team also assembled eclampsia kits and eclampsia management flow diagrams and made them available at both hospital units.

Results
By the end of the project, the eclampsia management protocol was developed and fully implemented at Kenyatta National Hospital. The staff members’ knowledge and skills on eclampsia management improved and the eclampsia kits were easily accessible, which enabled the hospital staff to treat their patients in a quick and efficient way. Magnesium sulphate was given as medication and the time it took to provide it to the women was reduced from an average of 45 minutes to 20 minutes. Part of this efficiency was due to the fact that the midwives were now allowed and trained to give the medication rather than just the doctors, which was the case before the project.

In 2017, this project had been rolled out in the entire country.

Year: 2009