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Committees launched to deal with maternal, infant mortality
Mail and Guardian
2008-03-07

Three committees dealing with maternal mortality, perinatal mortality and infant mortality were launched at Emperors Palace in Kempton Park on Monday by Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang. The improvement of the health of women and children has always been a priority in the healthcare planning of our democratic government, Tshabalala-Msimang said. While the perinatal and infant mortality committees are new, the maternal mortality committee, already in existence, has new members, the minister said.

Each committee is made up of 15 members who have been chosen to reflect the demographics of the country and various expertise in the health sector. Tshabalala-Msimang requested that each committee have its first meeting within the next three weeks. While significant progress has been made in addressing the challenges of maternal and infant mortality in the country, we believe there is still more that needs to be done, the minister said.

These committees will assist in collating and interpreting data, recording the cause of deaths and the contributing factors, and classifying the death incident accordingly. They will thereafter make recommendations of the measures that need to be taken to address preventable causes and factors, the minister said. This work is an enormous task that requires dedication on the part of the committee members and cooperation from various role players within the national health system. We need information to filter through from facilities where incidents are first reported up to the national level to enable these committees to have most accurate information that they can work on.

This approach should have an effect in improving the quality of healthcare -- it is a strong tool for identification of problem areas and it will serve as a source of important data for further policy development and other remedial actions, Tshabalala-Msimang said. Besides the United Kingdom, South Africa is the only other country in the world that has instituted and sustained confidential enquiries into maternal deaths. Considerable progress has already been made over the past ten years in determining the causes of maternal mortality through the work of the National Committee on Confidential Enquiry into Maternal Deaths, the minister said.

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