One of South Africa’s few clinician scientists, Dr Salome Maswime has devoted her career to improving women’s health not only through science but also everyday hard work at the coalface of the public health sector.
Johannesburg, South Africa (13 April 2018) – Dr Salome Maswime (34), originally from Limpopo, wanted to become a doctor, because of her love for working with people and wanting to help people in need. During her training she discovered her love of the labour ward, finding it was both thrilling and rewarding. Eventually, her passion inspired her to complete a PhD, funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the South African Medical Research Council, investigating the reduction of maternal morbidity and mortality from caesarian section-related haemorrhage.
It was two deaths in the labour ward in Greytown during her community service — which she believed were avoidable — that spurred her on to acquire more training the field of obstetrics and gynaecology.
After recently completing her PhD focused on bleeding before and after Caesarean sections, Maswime now spends half her week caring for patients at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital, and the remainder conducting research.
“I use my clinical work to come up with research projects to advance medicine and examine new drugs and how they can be absorbed into the system,” she explains. Maswime also assists midwives working at local clinics to improve antenatal care services, and mentors registrars. While South Africa has a 25% Caesarean rate, Maswime points out that other countries with rates as low as 1% are still doing things better.
“South Africa’s maternal death rate has been increasing over the past years, and my PhD examines the causes in respect of Caesareans, and the fact that many women who need them can’t access the service in the state sector. If they could, we would improve our death rates and ensure more healthy mothers and babies,” she says.
She is proud that a piece she wrote on the subject for The Conversation attracted 12 700 readers, and was republished globally.
Passionate to improve the quality of service to birthing mothers in South Africa, she has presented this research in South Africa, Canada, Spain and Denmark. She has also represented the Wits Obstetrics and Gynaecology Clinical Research Division in Morrocco and Sweden. Additionally, she is an executive member of the South African Perioperative Research Group, a member of the International Network of Obstetric Survey Systems and is collaborating with the World Health Organization.
“I have found through my work and research that it all starts with strengthening health systems, addressing the shortages of beds, skills and specialist care.
“If we strengthen those things, we will definitely improve maternal outcomes,” she says, adding that her primary focus is to reduce maternal mortality here and across Africa.
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Dr Salome Maswime is a true example of a modern health professional. A remarkable trailblazer in the health sciences, balancing the demands of being a clinician and researcher while advancing the knowledge of high-risk pregnancies in the medical field.
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