Young mom Nema Nzambi named her newborn Matondo Dieu-Benis in gratitude to the health workers who saved her life when she experienced birth complications. Matondo means “thank you” in Lingala and Dieu-Benis is French for “God-bless.”
An unexpected pregnancy had completely upended this 19-year-old’s life. She abandoned her studies and isolated herself from her relatives and family. From being an extrovert and a valued community member, she became a recluse, fearing judgement and disrespect from e community members. This prevented her from seeking antenatal care at the health facility in her neighborhood. “[It’s] a health center I know well,” Nema says, “but because of the shame of being seen pregnant by a stranger, I not only wanted to end my life but also that of my sweet baby.”
In her ninth month of pregnancy, Nema went into labor and began slowly bleeding. She discreetly called for help from a traditional birth attendant. Fortunately, the birth attendant contacted a community health worker who realized that Nema’s life might be threatened by excessive bleeding after delivery, or postpartum hemorrhage (PPH), and took Nema to the neighborhood community health center.
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines PPH as blood loss of 500 mL or more within 24 hours after childbirth. A leading cause of maternal mortality worldwide, PPH affects an estimated 14 million women each year and results in around 70,000 deaths—mostly in low- and middle-income countries. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), 68% of maternal deaths are due to PPH.
At the health center, Nema received urgent care from providers trained in PPH management, including the WHO-recommended clinical bundle of the E-MOTIVE approach . WHO recommends that all women giving birth should be offered uterotonics during the third stage of labor to prevent PPH. While oxytocin is recommended as the uterotonic drug of choice, it requires constant refrigeration—which can be challenging in resource-constrained settings with unreliable electricity. The AMPLI-PPHI project aims to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity through the use of quality-assured PPH drugs to prevent PPH at the community level during home births.
The AMPLI-PPHI project trained the community health worker and health facility staff who cared for Nema, and has been supporting 40 facilities and their surrounding communities in Kimpese and Kisantu districts in the DRC. Over 100 providers in the two districts have been trained and monitored by mentors and experts from the DRC’s Ministry of Public Health using training materials updated to align with WHO’s recommendations.
Nema is highly aware of the danger she was in.
Ignorance kills. I don’t know how to begin by thanking the CHW for bringing me here. I’ll never stop testifying to this special opportunity I’ve had today. This date will remain forever in my heart. I didn’t know there could be such highly qualified and well-trained nurses. You’ve just saved my life and that’s why this precious gift will be called: MATONDO DIEU-BENIS. I’ll be coming by from time to time to show it to you as a sign of my gratitude.”
Nema Nzambi
About AMPLI-PPHI
The Unitaid-funded Accelerating Measurable Progress and Leveraging Investments for Postpartum Hemorrhage Impact (AMPLI-PPHI) project (2022–2026) is a $24 million initiative that focuses on generating evidence and learning, creating an enabling environment, and preparing the market to enable broad uptake of three postpartum hemorrhage prevention drugs in low- and middle-income countries. The Unitaid-Jhpiego program is working in partnership with the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO), PATH and country governments in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea, India and Kenya to ensure PPH medications are available at the right time, in the right place, for the right indication and for the right patient across health systems. With complementary funding from Safe Birth Africa, a joint Unitaid-UNFPA venture backed by the European Union, AMPLI-PPHI expanded to Nigeria and Zambia in 2024 to bring greater access to pregnant women and stop bleeding after birth, ultimately reducing maternal morbidity and mortality.