A review of maternal mortality in Malaysia
- Author:
Hematram Yadav
- Publication Type:Review
- Keywords:
Maternal mortality, Risk Approach in MCH Care, Confidential Enquiry, Malaysia
- From:International e-Journal of Science, Medicine and Education
2012;6(supp1):S142-S151
- CountryMalaysia
- Language:English
-
Abstract:
There has been a significant decline in
maternal mortality from 540 per 100,000 live births
in I957 to 28 per 100,000 in 2010. This decline is due
to several factors. Firstly the introduction of the rural
health infrastructure which is mainly constructing health
centres and midwife clinics for the rural population.
This provided the accessibility and availability of
primary health care and specially, antenatal care for
the women. This also helped to increase the antenatal
coverage for the women to 98% in 2010 and it increased
the average number of antenatal visits per women from
6 in 1980 to 12 visits in 2010 for pregnant women.
Along with the introduction of health centres,
another main feature was the introduction of specific
programmes to address the needs of the women and
children. In the 1950s the introduction of Maternal
and Child Health (MCH) programme was an important
step. Later in the late 1970s there was the introduction
of the High Risk Approach in MCH care and Safe
Motherhood in the 1980s. In 1990, an important step
was the introduction of the Confidential Enquiry into
Maternal Deaths (CEMD). Another significant factor in
the reduction is the identification of high risk mothers
and this is being done by the introduction of the colour
coding system in the health centres. Other factors
include the increase in the number of safe deliveries by
skilled personnel and the reduction in the number of
deliveries by the Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs).
The reduction in fertility rate from 6.3 in 1960 to 3.3 in
2010 has been another important factor. To achieve the
2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDG) to further
reduce maternal deaths by 50%, more needs to be done
especially to identify maternal deaths that are missed by
omission or misclassification and also to capture the late
maternal deaths.
- Full text:W020150928554852324589.pdf
