The New York Times described experiences of mothers and health workers since Sierra Leone instituted a scheme to provide free health care to pregnant women, lactating mothers, and children under the age of 5. The inability to pay is often cited as a main reason for not seeking care.
Adam Nossiter reports
Although the worn-out community health officer here in Waterloo, Jimmy Jajua, complained that demand was so high he had “no time to go off duty,” he noted that maternal deaths had dropped “drastically” now that his rudimentary clinic, still without electricity, charged no fees.
Women at the clinics said they felt safer, having traded risky home births for at least some medical care.