A new maternity unit for the Saint-Jean-de-Dieu hospital in Boko

Materniteit Boko

We have been working in close collaboration with the Saint-Jean-de-Dieu hospital in Boko for almost 40 years. Various services are offered to patients, including internal medecine, paediatrics, imaging, surgery and gynecology.

The latter service is bursting at the seams. In four years, the number of patients has doubled, going from 1229 to 2447, and consultations from 2500 to 5500. The number of hospitalizations has gone from 1490 to 3862. 

Today, the service employs two gynecologists, three general practitioners, three qualified sage-femmes, six nurses, and eight health professionals. There is a delivery room with three tables, a workroom with two tables, an emergency room, two infirmaries with six beds each, and two consultation rooms.

On average, 35 women are hospitalized simultaneously, although there are only 22 beds. This means that women must lie on beds in the hallway or outside under a shelter. The staff must deal with urgent matters – women go to hospitals only for difficult deliveries and not for regular deliveries  – and look for beds in other services.

Of course, this cannot continue. That is why, with the owner of the hospital (the Archdiocese of Parakou) and based on the pledge of the hospital’s management,we had the idea of building a new department with a capacity of 100 beds, which would accommodate obstetrics, neonatology, and gynecological surgery.

The budget is 120 000 euro. The work will begin this year if we can mobilize the funding in time. Of course, donations for this project are always welcome.