🩺
Stop Maternal Mortality
Countries🇪🇹Ethiopia
WHO · UNICEF · UN IGME 2024← All Countries
🇪🇹
Maternal & Child Mortality
in Ethiopia
East Africa · #26 of 30 worst globally
Child Deaths Since Jan 1, 2026
0
53.6 per 1,000 live births · Ethiopia
Deaths at Birth Today
0
est. newborns today
Infant Mortality Rate
53.6
per 1,000 · 2.0× world avg
Maternal Mortality Rate
267
per 100,000 · 1.4× world avg
Flag of EthiopiaEast Africa
Birth Mortality Crisis

Mothers & Newborns
Dying in Ethiopia
During Childbirth

267 maternal deaths per 100,000 — Ethiopia's Health Extension Program has been one of the most successful maternal health initiatives in Africa.

Newborn & Infant Mortality
53.6deaths per 1,000 live births
2.0× the world average
Maternal Mortality During Birth
267deaths per 100,000 live births
1.4× the world average
👶

Newborn & Child Deaths During Birth in Ethiopia

Ethiopia was a global health success story 2000–2015 through its Health Extension Program — 45,000 female community health workers deployed to rural villages. The Tigray War (2020–2022) dramatically reversed gains in conflict-affected regions.

Nationally significant improvement since 2000. Tigray war caused one of the worst humanitarian disasters in recent history.

Leading Causes of Child Death at Birth
Neonatal causes30%
Pneumonia17%
Diarrhoea14%
Malaria12%
Other27%

* Neonatal deaths (first 28 days) represent the largest share of under-5 mortality.

What Happens in the Delivery Room
🏥
Births in a health facility~82%
estimated — lower in conflict/rural areas
👩‍⚕️
Skilled birth attendant present~52%
doctor, midwife or trained nurse
⚠️
Neonatal deaths (first 28 days)48%
of all under-5 deaths occur at birth
🩸
Most preventable with skilled care~75%
of child and maternal deaths
🤱

Maternal Mortality During Birth in Ethiopia

The Tigray War systematically targeted health facilities — over 70% of Tigray's health facilities were damaged or destroyed. An estimated 100,000+ people died in the conflict.

Strong national improvement trajectory, severely disrupted by Tigray and subsequent conflicts.

Causes of Death During Labour & Delivery
Haemorrhage25%
Eclampsia20%
Sepsis17%
Obstructed labour15%
Malaria in pregnancy10%
Other13%

* Haemorrhage and eclampsia together cause over 50% of deaths — both are treatable with basic skilled care.

Why Mothers Die at Birth Here
🩺
Emergency obstetric care availableLimited
few facilities can manage haemorrhage
🩸
Blood transfusion accessCritical gap
haemorrhage kills within 2 hours
💊
Magnesium sulphate (eclampsia)Often absent
costs $1 — saves lives instantly
If skilled care were universal~75% fewer deaths
WHO estimate for this mortality level
⚠️

Why Is This Still Happening?

Structural Barriers to Safe Birth in Ethiopia
Tigray War (2020–2022) — systematic destruction of health facilities
Ongoing Amhara and Oromia conflicts displacing millions
45,000 Health Extension Workers — Africa's most successful CHW programme
Recurring drought and food crisis affecting 45% of children
🎯
SDG 3 Progress Assessment

Ethiopia's HEP model shows what community health investment can achieve. Sustaining peace is now the critical prerequisite.

💡
Prevention & Solutions

How Can We Prevent This in Ethiopia?

📍 The Situation

Ethiopia has made remarkable progress on maternal mortality through aggressive investment in community health workers (Health Extension Workers). However, the Tigray, Amhara, and Afar conflicts have caused massive setbacks in affected regions, and nationally, disparities remain extreme between urban and rural outcomes.

🔬 How Ultrasound Helps

Ethiopia's Health Extension Worker (HEW) program — over 45,000 workers deployed to villages across the country — is one of the most ambitious community health worker systems in the world. Introducing POCUS as a component of HEW skill sets, with appropriate training and supervision, would create one of the world's largest community-based ultrasound screening programs.

🎓 The Training Gap

GUSI's rapid-training model and online delivery platform are directly applicable to HEW education at scale. Ethiopia has the deployment infrastructure — it needs the training curriculum and certification framework that GUSI provides.

🩺
Global Ultrasound Institute · GUSI
The training that closes the gap exists today.

GUSI trains physicians, nurses, midwives, and community health workers in Point-of-Care Ultrasound — the technology that detects the conditions killing mothers and babies before they become emergencies. OB POCUS · Pediatric POCUS · Primary Care POCUS · Online & in-person.

What a trained provider can detect with a portable ultrasound device
🩸Placenta previa
🔄Malpresentation
👥Twin pregnancy
📉Fetal growth restriction
Pre-eclampsia markers
🫁Childhood pneumonia
💉Internal bleeding
🧠Hydrocephalus
🧮
Interactive Model

POCUS Impact Calculator — Ethiopia

Model based on: 600 scans/provider/year · 15% high-risk detection rate · 47% mortality reduction for detected cases (Swanson et al. 2014 · WHO POCUS in LMICs review)
50
1 provider250500 providers
Scans per Year
30,000
pregnant women screened
High-Risk Detected
4,500
flagged for referral / intervention
Maternal Deaths Prevented
18
mothers saved per year
Newborn Deaths Prevented
43
babies saved per year
Total Lives Saved Per Year
61deaths prevented
1.2
lives per provider
$406
est. cost per life saved
$24,750
total training investment

* This calculator uses a conservative evidence-based model. Actual impact varies by deployment context, provider experience, and health system capacity. Training cost based on GUSI OB POCUS Essentials (~$495/provider). Mortality reduction from peer-reviewed POCUS implementation studies in low-resource settings.

Technology & Education

A Practical Plan to Bring POCUS to Ethiopia

🗺️ Our Plan to Bring POCUS to Ethiopia

Our goal is to partner with GUSI (Global Ultrasound Institute) and leading portable ultrasound manufacturers to place life-saving diagnostic tools directly in the hands of trained local providers across Ethiopia — so that dangerous complications are caught early, not discovered too late.

  1. Start with the ground truth.Our plan begins by mapping what already exists — facilities, referral pathways, blood supply, and the midwives, nurses, and physicians who are closest to mothers at the moment of crisis.
  2. Train local champions through GUSI.We enrol a core group of local providers in GUSI's OB POCUS Essentials and Pediatric POCUS courses — then certify them to train others, so the knowledge multiplies without depending on outside experts indefinitely.
  3. Put the right device in the right hands.We partner with portable ultrasound brands — Butterfly iQ+, Philips Lumify, GE Vscan Air — to source devices suited to Ethiopia's power infrastructure, connectivity, and budget. No unnecessary complexity, just what works in the field.
  4. Build a referral system around what the scan finds.A scan without a clear next step saves no one. Our plan defines exactly what to look for, which findings require immediate referral, and how to document everything at the point of care — so no warning sign is lost in translation.
  5. Sustain it through ongoing quality assurance.Regular image review sessions, outcomes tracking, and refresher training keep skills sharp and standards high — turning a one-time intervention into a durable change in how care is delivered.
📡 Recommended Portable Ultrasound Devices
🦋 Butterfly iQ+
Website →
Single-probe whole-body device covering OB, cardiac, lung, and FAST exams. App-based platform with built-in AI guidance. Designed for low-resource environments — charges via USB and works with any smartphone.
🔵 Philips Lumify
Website →
App-based probe that plugs into Android phones. Multiple transducer heads available for OB and point-of-care use. Widely used in GUSI-supported training programs globally.
🟢 GE Vscan Air
Website →
Wireless, pocket-sized dual-probe handheld. Streams live images to a smartphone app. Excellent battery life — purpose-built for rapid bedside OB and FAST-style assessments.
🔷 Clarius HD3
Website →
High-resolution wireless handheld. Multiple probe configurations available. Strong image quality in a compact form factor — suitable for OB, lung, and neonatal scanning.
Global Ultrasound Institute · GUSI

The training that closes the gap — built for providers in settings like Ethiopia

GUSI trains physicians, nurses, midwives, and community health workers in Point-of-Care Ultrasound. Courses are designed from the ground up for providers in resource-limited settings — short, practical, competency-based, and available online or in person. Every course maps directly to the conditions killing mothers and babies during childbirth.

50+
Countries trained
OB · Peds · Emergency
POCUS specialties
Online + In-person
Flexible delivery
WHO-aligned
Curriculum standard
Available Courses
Online + hands-on
OB POCUS Essentials
The core obstetric ultrasound curriculum — fetal presentation, placenta location, amniotic fluid, gestational age, and fetal heart. Designed for physicians, nurses, and midwives with no prior ultrasound experience.
Learn more →
Online + hands-on
Pediatric POCUS
Point-of-care ultrasound for newborn and child emergencies — pneumonia, pneumothorax, cardiac tamponade, intussusception, and more. Critical for settings where neonatal and child mortality is highest.
Learn more →
Online + hands-on
FAST & Emergency POCUS
Focused Assessment with Sonography in Trauma — rapid detection of internal bleeding, haemothorax, and pericardial effusion. Life-saving in obstetric haemorrhage settings.
Learn more →
On-site program
Global Health Initiative
GUSI partners with hospitals, NGOs, and governments to deploy POCUS training at scale in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Latin America — including train-the-trainer models for local sustainability.
Learn more →