Milly Nalwadda believed that when she checked into a hospital in Uganda, instead of using a traditional birth attendant, she was doing the best thing for her unborn child.
But Milly's decision backfired when the attending nurse accidentally killed her newborn baby.
"Two hours after delivery I requested to see my baby, but she was dead because the nurse had laid her face-down," the 39-year-old mother of six said. "She apologised, but I was left in tatters."
Despite the tragedy in 2005, Milly returned to a maternity clinic when she became pregnant again, only to face abuse from nurses who told her she was too old to have a child. She gave up on modern medicine and turned instead to a traditional birth attendant, who administered a course of herbs and delivered her child safely.
Milly's case is not an isolated incident. Hundreds of thousands of Ugandan women, distrustful of the dire healthcare system, are relying on traditional birth attendants, leading UN officials to warn that child mortality reduction targets are in danger.
Officials say that poor medical facilities in hospitals, badly trained and rude medical staff, poverty and the long distances from rural areas to medical centres are contributing to the trend.
An average of one million babies are born in Uganda every year, but government and UN officials concede that while the majority of mothers visit antenatal clinics during the first months of pregnancy, they opt to stay away at the moment of birth.
"Antenatal care for Ugandan women is over 70 percent, but only 40 percent deliver in hospitals," Deputy Health Minister Emmanuel Otala said.
"The reasons for this are many - there are delays in the delivery of services and there are negative attitudes towards the patients."
A government study in 2006 found that more than 370 children under the age of five die in the country per day, of which 25 percent are under the age of one year.
Death rates are decreasing at a rate of one percent per annum, but this is far below the target of a 13 percent annual reduction, the United Nations Children's Fund says. - Sapa-DPA