Sierra Leone - “Behind Every Number is a Family and a Life Saved,” Dr. Austin Demby

Saffie, not a real person, is a young mother. She starts bleeding heavily after giving birth. Her family finds transport and rushes her to hospital. What happens in the next hour decides whether she goes home to hold her baby or not.

That moment was at the heart of a frank conversation on Wednesday 28th October at the Freetown City Hall on the 300 Days of Activism for Triple Zero. The Minister of Health, Dr. Austin Demby, and the Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Mustapha Kabba, sat with health workers, partners and community leaders. “When a woman arrives with severe bleeding,” Dr. Demby said, “the system must respond as one coordinated team.”

Lives saved, lives still lost

Compared with the same period in 2025, maternal deaths are down 31.3 per cent and child deaths are down 12.7 per cent. More than 10,000 children who had never received a single dose of vaccine are now vaccinated. Dr. Demby thanked health workers for doing a job he described as “often under difficult conditions,” and thanked communities “for trusting us to look after your health.” But still, lives are being lost and there now an urgency to address that. In Week 42 alone, six mothers died nationwide, and every one of those deaths was preventable.

“Behind every number is a person, a family and a community,” Minister Demby said. He went on: “Every death represents a family changed forever.”

Why families stop coming

Mothers are dying from bleeding, a ruptured uterus and infection. Children are dying from malaria, sepsis and chest infections. Too often, a delay is what kills: danger signs missed, a referral not called ahead, blood not ready, a team slower to act.

Some delays start long before the hospital. A mother who has been ignored, treated rudely or asked for an unofficial payment may not come back. She may turn to a traditional birth attendant, or wait until it is too late.

“No patient should be denied, delayed or humiliated while seeking essential care because they cannot make an unofficial payment,” Dr. Demby stressed. He refused to blame families: “We must ask why people lose trust, and then make our services worthy of that trust.”

What 58 days can change

The Ministry wants the remaining 58 days to change what a mother finds when she arrives. Staff ready to stop bleeding and treat dangerous blood pressure. Sick babies seen quickly. Hospitals warned before a referral arrives, with blood and medicines ready day and night.

Every death, according to the Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Mustapha Kabba, “must be counted, reviewed and used to improve care.” He went on;

“we cannot promise that every challenge will disappear in the remaining 58 days. But, the will ensure that families are treated with dignity, respect and compassion.”

For Dr. Demby, the test is simple: “fewer preventable maternal deaths, fewer preventable child deaths, and more children protected by vaccination.” Every woman and child, he said, “must be treated with humility and competence.”