New Tool to Track Maternal Mortality

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has introduced a new tool in India to help health-care experts, policymakers, and local communities understand the causes of the high rates of maternal mortality across the country. The tool, known as the Maternal and Perinatal Death Inquiry and Response (MAPEDIR), has collected data and analyzed the cases of some 1,600 women. 

“The tragic reality is that too often maternal deaths are not visible,” said Chris Hirabayashi, the deputy director of UNICEF's programmes in India. “They don’t leave any trace behind, and their deaths are not accounted for.”

MAPEDIR follows a six step process:

• Sensitizing communities on maternal and perinatal health issues, including birth preparedness and complication readiness
• Reporting and investigating maternal deaths
• Interviewing all families with a maternal death to determine the biological and social causes
• Analyzing and interpreting the data
• Sharing the finding with communities to develop appropriate, high-impact, local interventions
• Monitoring the interventions with ongoing maternal death inquires and developing new evidence-based interventions as needed. (ANI)

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