Preventing Maternal Mortality through Emergency Obstetric Care
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May Post, Academy for Educational Development,
SARA Project
Washington, D.C. (April 1997)
21 pp - also available in French
The Safe Motherhood Initiative, launched in 1987, aimed to reduce the
number of maternal deaths by the year 2000. In 1996, new estimates of
maternal mortality and indicated that 80,000 more women died from
complications of pregnancy and labour than earlier estimates had suggested.
The majority of maternal deaths seem to be directly due to obstetric
complications such as haemorrhage, unsafe abortion, hypertensive disorders,
sepsis, and obstructed labour.
To date, the focus of safe motherhood programs in most countries has been
on delivery of maternal services rather than emergency obstetric care
(EOC). The challenge in reducing maternal mortality is to concentrate on
improving efficient delivery of care for emergency obstetric complications
in addition to ongoing maternal health care services. 'Preventing Maternal
Mortality through Emergency Obstetric Care' discusses the barriers to timely
and appropriate EOC, lessons learned and best practices for improving EOC,
the cost of EOC, and research needs and information gaps. The report
recommends interventions that can be effectively carried out at various
levels of the health system starting from the community itself and
community-level facilities to private sector providers, donors, program
managers, and policymakers.
To request a copy of 'Preventing Maternal Mortality through Emergency
Obstetric Care' please contact:
SARA Project
Academy for Educational Development
1255 23rd St., NW
Washington, DC 20037, USA
Tel: +1-202-884-870
Fax: +1-202-884-8701
email: sara@aed.org
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Bret Harris
mailto:bharris@smtp.aed.org
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