New moves to meet MDGs for maternal and infant care

Malawi has launched a pilot project to investigate ways of reducing the number of mothers and children who die every year to help it reach its millennium development goals (MDGs) by 2015.

Malawi's mortality rates of 110 infants and 175 children aged under five per every 1,000 live births are among world's highest, according to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF). On top of this, it is estimated that nearly two percent of live births in Malawi result in the mother's death. To meet its MDGs, Malawi has to reduce the maternal mortality rate by three-quarters and lower the number of deaths among children younger than five years by two-thirds.

UN agencies in Malawi, in partnership with the European Commission (EC) and the Malawi government, are to pump US$2.2 million into three districts: Nkhata Bay in the Northern Region, Zomba in the Southern Region and Ntcheu in the Central Region to provide basic emergency obstetric care services in the three centres.

Hudson Kubwalo, Health Information and Promotion Officer in the Malawi office of the UN's World Health Organisation (WHO), said a needs assessment had found that the unavailability of basic healthcare was one of the major causes of the high infant and maternal mortality in the three districts. Poor roads, a lack of transport to reach the nearest healthcare facility and a high illiteracy rate - around 58 percent among women - were other reasons given for the high level of maternal deaths.

WHO representative Dr Matshidiso Moeti said the partnership would work towards increasing the number of health facilities offering basic emergency obstetric care nationally from a baseline of just two percent at present to 50 percent by 2011.

WHO's Kubwalo said, "The resources from the newly launched partnership will ... initiate some best practices, such as improving the midwifery skills of healthcare providers, utilisation of skilled attendants for every delivery, discouraging traditional birth attendants from performing deliveries, encouraging male participation and mobilising transport for pregnant women."

Communities would also be encouraged to set up funds to facilitate the quick referral of expectant mothers for emergency care. The pilot project is eventually expected to be scaled up to cover the entire country.

The needs assessment also found that poor communities often consulted traditional healers for help, but traditional leader Kwataine, in Ntcheu district, said many babies died "because of people's beliefs in traditional doctors".

Ambassador Alessandro Mariani, head of the EC delegation to Malawi, said the country was among eight selected by the commission to benefit from the partnership for realising the health MDGs.

The WHO estimates that more than half a million women die from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth worldwide every year.

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