Hundreds of Kenyan women are dying in childbirth each year amid critical shortages of medical equipment, transport, and trained staff, with Kilifi County (a coastal county in southeastern Kenya) recording 532 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births — far above the national average of 355. Families of women such as Penina Zawadi and Halima Ramadhan, both of whom died after delivering at Malindi General Hospital in 2025, describe hours-long delays in receiving referrals, absent medication, and a lack of communication from medical staff. Kenya's government says it is expanding healthcare access and rolling out carbetocin — a drug used to prevent postpartum haemorrhage — nationwide, but officials acknowledge that 26 of the country's 47 counties still carry a disproportionately high burden of preventable maternal and newborn deaths, a crisis compounded by recent cuts to international donor funding.