Introduction Uganda has a maternal mortality ratio of 440/100,000 live births. With 60 million of the world’s annual 130 million deliveries occurring at home it is imperative that we encourage women to deliver in a health facility as a means to reduce maternal mortality and achieve the millennium development goals. Research undertaken in Nepal looking at the impact of community health groups, facilitated by local women, to reduce maternal mortality has shown encouraging results. Through a series of community health education sessions we aimed to increase the number of women delivering at Kabubbu Health Centre (HC).

Methods Over the period of 3 months 6 community health education sessions were undertaken in the village of Kabubbu, rural Uganda. Women were invited to attend discussion groups on family planning, safe motherhood and obstetric complications. We compared the number of women attending the antenatal clinic and delivering at Kabubbu HC before and after the intervention.

Results The average monthly deliveries increased from 6.1 to 22.8 before and after the intervention respectively. The number of women attending for antenatal care increased from 11.5 to 33.6 per week before and after the intervention respectively.

Discussion Community health education empowers women, gives them a greater understanding of their health needs and has been successful at increasing the number of deliveries at Kabubbu HC. Community health education can be used alongside other interventions as a means to reduce maternal mortality.