Developments in tackling maternal mortality
Wednesday, 07 Jan 2009 07:58
A number of new and underutilised health technologies have been identified by experts that could be used to reduce maternal mortality in developing countries.
A report published in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology today claims the methods could help prevent and manage obstetric complications in under-resourced nations.
Over half a million women worldwide die each year due to complications during pregnancy - including postpartum haemorrhage, eclampsia, obstructed labour, infection, and unsafe abortion.
The majority of the fatalities occur in "low-resource settings", health experts suggest, where skilled attendance and comprehensive emergency obstetric care remain largely unavailable.
Today's report suggest new health technologies, such as misoprostol and simplified caesarean techniques, offer possibilities for dealing with these complications in settings where medical supplies, highly skilled health providers, and health facilities are scarce.
Misoprostol is a drug which can be administered to prevent postpartum haemorrhage, where oxytocin is not available. The condition is the biggest cause of maternal death in Africa <http://www.inthenews.co.uk/news/africa/> and Asia <http://www.inthenews.co.uk/news/asia/> , leading to an estimated 140,000 women losing their lives each year.
The drug can be taken orally, representing a more attractive option in regions where injections skills are not present. It can also be used to treat complications relating to unsafe abortion and incomplete miscarriage.
The authors also recommend and outline a simplified caesarean technique. It is thought that around six million women suffer obstructed labours each year, without access to emergency obstetric care, and often have to endure days of agony which end in the death of the baby and often the mother.
Health experts point out the simplified caesarean technique can be performed by lower level health providers in more limited facilities.
Dr Vivien Davis Tsu, associate director of reproductive health at US-based PATH in Seattle, said: "Maternal mortality has rightly been a focus of the Millennium Development Goals, since pregnancy-related complications take the lives of half a million women each year.
"While progress has been frustratingly slow, especially in Africa where some of the highest rates of maternal death occur, there are real opportunities for making headway in low-income countries if we take advantage of some of the new and under-utilised technologies that are available," she added.
"Along with efforts to see that women deliver with the assistance of a skilled midwife, we should ensure that women - even in poor countries and remote areas - have access to affordable and appropriate technologies that can help manage or prevent common complications like postpartum haemorrhage and obstructed labour."
Professor Philip Steer, BJOG editor-in-chief, added it was "unacceptable" that women were continuing to die every day of preventable or manageable complications related to pregnancy and childbirth.
"The implementation of new technologies, adequate funding and political will, are all critical to addressing the problem of maternal mortality," he ended.
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Marcy Bloom
mailto:marcybloom@comcast.net