Maternal mortality rate alarming

Mothers at a cliniic. More should be done to end deaths during delivery. PHOTO | COURTESY OF AMREF

What you need to know:

  • Despite this being the case, Tanzania has made insufficient progress to attain the ended MDG 5 on improving maternal health. Appallingly, the Tanzania Demographic Health Survey (TDHS) report of 2015/2016 indicates that the maternal mortality rate (MMR) has increased from 432 to 556.

Mwanza. Improving reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health in Tanzania is a target set out in various international and national instruments such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)/Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Vision 2025, Five Year Development Plan II.

Despite this being the case, Tanzania has made insufficient progress to attain the ended MDG 5 on improving maternal health. Appallingly, the Tanzania Demographic Health Survey (TDHS) report of 2015/2016 indicates that the maternal mortality rate (MMR) has increased from 432 to 556.

The main direct causes of these deaths as reported by World Health Organization (WHO) are haemorrhages, infections, unsafe abortions, hypertensive disorders and obstructed labours. The presence of these causes is intensified by HIV and malaria, Tanzania’s number one killer. The fact that more than half of births in Tanzania occur at home also contributes to the elevated maternal mortality rate. Of all pregnant women, only 46 percent are assisted during childbirth by a doctor, clinical officer, nurse, midwife or maternal and child health aide.

High population growth places additional strain on service provision at all levels. Pockets of low performance for key interventions also have an impact. For example, fluctuations in routine measles immunization of children under-five years has led to outbreaks and necessitated emergency measles campaigns (WHO).

Neonatal deaths are inseparably linked to the health of the mother during pregnancy and to the conditions of delivery and newborn care. For instance, Unicef reports indicate that, In Tanzania only 23 per cent of children are exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life, this is another cause of the reported child deaths in the country.

What is government doing to address this?

Towards this end, the government of is commended for its pursuit in addressing the maternal and newborn health challenges through creating a favorable policy environment by addressing the major issues related to child and maternal health as well as implementing key cost-effective high impact interventions.

Apart from these initiatives, Tanzania has signed different global and regional initiatives such as the Sustainable Development Goals 2030. To confirm its continued commitment to improving RMNCAH care in the country, the Government of Tanzania has formulated the National Road Map Strategic Plan (2016 - 2020) aiming at improving Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health (RMNCAH) in Tanzania by providing guidance for implementation of RMNCAH interventions in the country.

Initiatives from other actors

Amref Health Africa is an organization that is committed to promote lasting health change in Africa. Since its operation in Tanzania the organization has been able to reach to 36,942,674 beneficiaries cumulatively where 54 per cent are women and 37.5 per cent children through its various projects stemming from its four programs namely; RMNCAH (33%), Disease and Control Program (33%), WASH (15%) and Capacity Building (19%).

Together with other UN partners, Unicef has raised the profile of maternal, newborn and child health and made it a priority in the health sector. Unicef works with the Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children (MoHCDEC) to improve the quality of maternal, newborn and child health services in health facilities and to decentralize aspects of mother and child healthcare to community level. For instance Unicef Tanzania works within the Health and Nutrition Programme to provide its support to the government to translate policies and strategies into practice so as to increase the availability and utilization of quality services and leverages support for maintaining and scaling up cost-effective interventions (Unicef).

The Maternal & Child Survival Programme (MCSP) is also another Programme that is designed to advance USAID’s goal of ending preventable child and maternal deaths, and is currently working in 25 countries including Tanzania with interventions that are focused on increasing coverage and utilization of high-quality reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health interventions at the household, community and health facility levels.

Moreover, the group ceo of Amref Health Africa, Githinji Gitahi during his address at Amref Health Africa’s annual stakeholders meeting, 2017 mentioned some of the challenges that tend to increase the gap between the communities and the health sector as follows; he retaliated on the challenge of access to health facilities in the rural areas. He therefore recommended for the readiness to making these services available to the people. He said with multi stakeholders’ effort we stand a better chance of addressing various health challenges, including maternal mortality rate.

Ms Ngailo is Communication, Advocacy and Documentation Officer at Amref Health Africa