ST. MARY’S CHILDREN AND COMMUNITY HOSPITAL, UMUOWA ORLU, APPROVED AS A CEmOC CENTRE MARCH 2025

We are proud to announce that St. Mary’s Children and Community Hospital, Umuowa Orlu, has been officially approved as a Comprehensive Emergency Obstetric Care (CEmOC) Centre by the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) in partnership with an accredited Health Maintenance Organization (HMO).

The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for this designation was signed on Thursday, 27th February 2025,marking a significant milestone in our commitment to reducing maternal mortality and providing life-saving emergency obstetric care to vulnerable and indigent women.

With this approval, St. Mary’s joins 159 other hospitals nationwide in delivering critical maternal and newborn emergency services at no cost to eligible patients.

What This Means for Our Community: As an approved CEmOC Centre, St. Mary’s Children and Community Hospital will now provide:

• Emergency cesarean sections
• Safe blood transfusions
• Essential medications for maternal emergencies (e.g., antibiotics, oxytocics, anticonvulsants)
• Management of postpartum hemorrhage and severe infections
• Manual removal of retained placenta
• Assisted vaginal deliveries (forceps/vacuum extraction)
• Newborn resuscitation for birth asphyxia

Who Can Benefit?

This initiative strictly serves poor and indigent pregnant women who face life-threatening complications but cannot afford emergency obstetric care.

How to Access This Service

• Referral from partner hospitals using designated CEmOC referral forms (to be distributed soon).
• Strictly for emergency obstetric cases (routine maternity cases are not covered).

A Call to Action for Partner Hospitals

We urge all partner hospitals and institutions to collaborate with us in identifying and referring only those truly in need. Together, we can prevent unnecessary maternal deaths.