WUNRN
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Maternal-mortality-continues-to-be-unacceptably-high_18766170
LATIN AMERICA & CARIBBEAN – MATERNAL MORTALITY CONTINUES UNACCEPTABLY HIGH
New PAHO/WHO network to
monitor health of women and newborn’s in Caribbean and Latin America
April 18, 2015 - The
new CLAP Network will play an important role in helping to further reduce
maternal and neonatal mortality in the region by collecting data on the causes
of maternal and neonatal death as well as on the causes of complications that
leave women seriously affected following childbirth.
On average, approximately 16 women die every day in the
Caribbean and Latin America from complications of pregnancy or childbirth,
while 250 babies die each day before having reached 28 days of age.
Pan American Health Organisation/World Health Organisation
(PAHO/WHO) has launched the new CLAP Network of Latin American and Caribbean
Centres for Maternal Surveillance and Research on Women's and Neonatal Health
to gather information on the causes of these deaths and contribute to policies
for their prevention.
"Maternal mortality has been reduced considerably in
the last 20 years, but it continues to be unacceptably high, and the majority
of its causes can be prevented or treated," said Suzanne Serruya, Director
of the Latin American Centre for Perinatology, Women and Reproductive Health
(CLAP/WRH) of PAHO/WHO, during the launch of the new network in Brasilia.
The new CLAP Network will play an important role in helping
to further reduce maternal and neonatal mortality in the region by collecting
data on the causes of maternal and neonatal death as well as on the causes of
complications that leave women seriously affected following childbirth.
Maternal and newborn health are closely intertwined.
Approximately two out of three neonatal deaths occur during the first week of
life, and the main causes include prematurity, congenital anomalies, asphyxia,
sepsis and other infections.
Pablo Duran, regional advisor on perinatal health at
CLAP/WHR, noted that since 1990 the number of newborns who die in the first
month of life has declined by 55 per cent in the region.
"But we should make more efforts to prevent these
deaths and conditions such as prematurity, retinopathy and asphyxia that can
impact negatively on health and quality of life," Duran said, adding that
"The CLAP Network will help assess the use and impact of cost-effective
interventions and will monitor conditions that help reduce preventable deaths
and that affect the quality of life of newborns.
The CLAP Network builds on a collaborative effort in which
22 institutions in 12 Latin American countries began in 2012 to use a new
component of the Perinatal Clinical History, which contains data on pregnant
women and their children from the first prenatal visit until after delivery.
The new component, introduced into the Perinatal Information System, makes it
possible to monitor severe maternal health events. The CLAP Network will now
try to expand that collaboration to more institutions and countries.
More than 50 hospitals, health institutes, universities and
WHO Collaborating Centres in over 25 countries of the Americas have been
invited to become part of the new network.