Maternal Health Innovation in Kenya

Maternal health innovation in Kenya is critical to reducing the 5,000 maternal deaths that occur annually due to pregnancy and childbirth-related complications. To address this crisis, our partner Kisumu Medical and Education Trust (KMET) launched the Center for Maternal Health Innovations—a social enterprise dedicated to improving maternal care through lifesaving technologies and community-driven solutions.

In 2016, KMET launched the Center for Maternal Health Innovations, a social enterprise addressing systemic drivers of high maternal mortality, including severe shortages of health supplies and a lack of skilled health professionals.

The Center produces, stocks, and distributes essential medical products for KMET’s programs and for sale to medical facilities, government agencies, and international partners. It has also refined a low-cost, life-saving technology—the uterine balloon tamponade (UBT)—which is highly effective in stopping postpartum hemorrhaging, a leading cause of one in three maternal deaths in the country.

In 2023, KMET participated in Fòs Feminista’s Innovation and Social Enterprise Lab to further scale its impact. The Lab provided marketing and sales support to help launch a new e-commerce platform, expanding the Center’s reach to wider markets. The Center projects that this new sales channel will quadruple revenue, significantly increasing access to these maternal health innovations. So far, the Center has distributed 30,000 UBT kits to 8 countries and 31 counties in Kenya.

By commercializing UBT kits and other supplies—including reusable menstrual pads and nutrition products—the Center estimates it has saved more than 2,400 lives. The profit generated is reinvested in their mission, including through the “Sisterhood for Change” program, which employs women and girls in vulnerable situations to assemble UBT kits, creating a cycle of economic empowerment tied to maternal care.

“The Center is an evidence-based, high-impact social enterprise that is rooted in local solutions to improve women’s health. As a local organization, our target markets and audiences know and trust us, which helps enormously in advancing our causes.” – John Okere, KMET’s Deputy CEO