Phoebe Asiyo

Ugandan midwife who pioneered community health initiatives saving thousands of mothers

Phoebe Asiyo (1923-2013) transformed maternal healthcare in rural Uganda through her innovative community-based approach. Starting in the 1950s, she trained over 500 traditional birth attendants in hygiene practices that reduced maternal mortality by 70% in Buganda region. Her 1962 report Traditional Midwifery in Rural Uganda became a UNICEF reference document. Asiyo founded the Phoebe Asiyo Maternal Health Foundation in 1970, which established the first mobile health clinics in East Africa. She developed the 'birth kit' concept - a low-cost hygiene kit now used globally - described in her 1985 book Safe Birth Anywhere. Her work influenced the WHO's 1990 Safe Motherhood Initiative. The documentary Midwife of the Lake Regions (2010) by filmmaker Ngozi Onwurah chronicles her legacy. Asiyo's methods are still taught at the Makerere University School of Public Health, and her portrait hangs in the Ugandan National Museum. Recent studies by Lancet Global Health credit her innovations for Uganda's 40% maternal mortality reduction between 1990-2020.