The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Mukono, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Fifty-eight-year-old midwife, Rose Nakakande is among the many unsung heroes in the health profession in Uganda. For 30 years, Nakakande has been in the Labour wards in different health units of Mukono district helping pregnant mothers to deliver healthy babies.
Despite being born in Natteta village in Kalungu district, Nakakande has devoted all her work time as a midwife in Mukono district. She started her service on Koome islands before she was transferred to Seeta-Nazigo Health Centre III.
She was transferred to Mukono dispensary in 1998, which was last year upgraded to Mukono General Hospital. Nakakande has served at this facility for 23 years. According to Nakakande, she will never forget a night at Mukono dispensary in 2000 when she single-handedly delivered 18 expectant mothers.
Mukono General Hospital Currently delivers between 20-30 mothers on a daily basis including some caesarean sections.
“It was such a very tiresome experience yet we had insufficient required medical equipment including medicine. I had no option but to keep on tasking the caretakers to the pregnant mothers to go out and buy the required equipment.”
Sr. Nakakande is often challenged by teenage mothers who flock to the hospital in huge numbers without the necessary requirements such as mama kits and bedsheets.
“We receive very many teen mothers who come to us when they are due for delivery yet they have nothing an expectant mother must be with before entering the labour ward.”
The government, which has been Nakakande’s single employer for 30 years, has never appreciated her service even with a certificate for her dedicated service. However, she is now a proud recipient of the Rotary Vocational Excellence Award.
Angella Nansamba, the President Rotary Club of Mukono, says that Sr. Nakakande was identified because of being an outstanding, dedicated and passionate medical worker in Mukono district. She explains that Sr. Nakakande leaves all her work station when the community is still yearning for her services.
Sr. Nakakande’s daughter, who also became a health worker, reveals that she declined her mother’s call to also become a midwife because she didn’t have time for her family as she was always being called upon by expectant mothers in the need for her service.
Nankumba is currently deployed at Bukasa Health Centre III in Kalangala Islands. She reveals that her mother worked day and night even during the days when she would be off duty because expectant mothers would call her from her home in the hospital quarters, saying they preferred her.
Rena Nagawa, a proud mother says Sr. Nakakande delivered her firstborn in 2002 and he is now in Senior Five. Nagawa says unlike other midwives who look at expectant mothers as burdens, Sr. Nakakande would show a lot of care and even follow them up after some time with phone calls asking to know how the baby and mothers are doing after being discharged from the hospital.
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