28-07-2025
Saving mothers, shaping policy: professor's fight for mothers
From Cape Town maternity wards to rural obstetric interventions and policy task rooms at the national department of health, Prof Susan Fawcus has played a key role in shaping South Africa's response to the preventable tragedy of mothers dying while giving birth.
Seated at a table inside her Plumstead home, the former head of obstetric services at Cape Town's Mowbray Maternity Hospital from 1996 to 2018, reveals the harsh reality of maternal deaths in the country using figures from Saving Mothers reports.
The reports, which Fawcus edited as a member of the National Committee on Confidential Enquiries into Maternal Deaths (NCCEMD), note that in 2019, maternal deaths fell below 100 per 100,000 live births for the first time, reaching 98.8. But in 2021 it spiked to 148 as Covid-19 disrupted services.
Fawcus offers two reasons for the rise in maternal deaths during Covid. 'One, there were a lot of women who died from Covid pneumonia, usually in the later stages of pregnancy. So that was probably the biggest reason,' she says. 'And then the second reason was the effect on health services: emergency ambulances were being used for Covid, staff were off because they had Covid or they were in quarantine.'
Behind each data point is a family ruptured by tragedy, Fawcus stresses. During the interview her speech is matter-of-fact as she cites figures, her tone soft-spoken and measured. But it is apparent that this stoic facade belies a deep passion for the plight of mothers suffering and dying preventable deaths during childbirth.
