Safe Motherhood in Kiteto District, What Does It Mean in the Umbrella of Women’s Reproductive Rights?

This research paper focuses on the issue of maternal mortality in Tanzania from a human rights perspective. It is looking at how women understand the issue of safe motherhood and their different experiences of delivery. Kiteto district was selected as a case study because it is one of the rural districts in Tanzania which has very high maternal mortality ratio. The qualitative re-search data was collected through focus group discussion with women who have delivered both at home and at the health facility; and Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs). Key informant interviews were used to interview Health Workers and MoHSW representative; and finally personal interviews was used to NGOs working on maternal health issues in Tanzania. The paper use a human rights based approach to analyse its findings. The discussion in the analysis is based on three arguments namely: women’s multiple duties and safe motherhood; experiences of Women during Delivering - at Home (TBA) and at the Health Facility; and barriers that reinforce low utilization of health facility delivery services. Thus, the paper argues that, since both facilities of delivery have gaps in attaining women’s right to safe motherhood, therefore the right based approach would be for the government to consider working with TBAs who will eventually provide linkages of pregnant women to the formal health system. Further, discouraging TBAs activities without improving conditions at the health facility does not help in reducing maternal mortality. This research aims at contributing to the existing literature of maternal health and human rights in Tanzania. It hopes that the findings and recom-mendation would assist the study area in reducing maternal mortality.