Obstetrics in Uganda: a reflection

I spent the summer after my first year of medical school working with the Kigezi Healthcare Foundation (KIHEFO) and Kirigame Maternal Hospital, a small private clinic in southwestern Uganda. I was particularly interested in this program because it provided clinical experience and also addressed social determinants of health, community empowerment, and health education. As a medical student, I have realized that health is as much of a product of individual circumstance as it is a patient’s environment and societal factors that impact access to healthcare and health resources. My experience was an observation of low resource prenatal care and efforts to reduce maternal and infant mortality in a country whose maternal mortality rate is 343 in 100,000 live births compared to 14 in 100,000 for the United States.