session objectives

Overview: Maternal and Child Health in Resource Poor

Settings

or: The World is Not Flat

HSERV/GH 544Winter Term 2012

Session Objectives

• Define key terms used to describe MCH problems globally

• Provide an overview of where maternal and child deaths are occurring and trends over time

• Present an overview of underlying causes for limited improvements in maternal and child health

• Present an overview of direct medical causes of maternal and child deaths and introduce strategies to reduce mortality

Why focus on MCH?

MCH terms / indicators

Definitions, Child:

NMR = Neonatal mortality rate (deaths in 1st 28 days of life/1000 live births)

IMR = Infant mortality rate (deaths 0-11 months/1000 live births)

U5MR = Under 5 mortality rate (aka CMR=child mortality rate) (deaths 0-4 years/1000 live births)


Definitions, Maternal:Maternal death = Death of a woman while pregnant or up

to 42 days after pregnancy from any cause except for accidental or incidental causes

MMR = Maternal mortality ratio = pregnancy-related deaths per 100,000 births

LTR = Lifetime risk of dying of a pregnancy-related cause (usually expressed in terms of odds, e.g. 1/74 = for every 74 women, 1 will die of maternal causes)

LTR Maternal Mortality, 2008

Source: Trends in Maternal Mortality 1990-2008. WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA and The World Bank.


Definitions (continued):

CBA = Child-bearing age = generally 15-49 years of age

TFR=Total fertility rate (expected pregnancies per woman CBA)

CPR=Contraceptive prevalence rate = proportion of married* women of CBA using contraception

*entered into sexual union

Interventions = “biologic agent or action intended to reduce morbidity or mortality”– Prevention or Treatment


Common abbreviations

ANC = Antenatal care (variously defined)

HCW = Health care workers

SBA = Skilled Birth Attendant (doctor, nurse or midwife)

TBA = Traditional Birth Attendant

CHW = Community Health Worker


Terms related to economics and equity

GNI PC=Per capita gross national income

Ratio of richest 20% to poorest 20% -- Measure of equity/inequity in health indicators and intervention coverage

Measure of equity/inequity in health indicators and intervention coverage using Wealth quintiles

Millennium Development Goals

• MDG4: Reduce U5MR by two thirds• MDG5: Reduce MMR by three quarters

Between 1990-2015

Trends in Child Mortality: Not on Track to Meet MDG4

Based on data from the Interagency Group for Child Mortality Estimates

Are MDG 4 & 5 realistic / attainable?

• Majority of maternal and child deaths are preventable with interventions that are already available and currently recommended for wide scale implementation.

• Despite worldwide failure to meet MDG 4 & 5 without massive acceleration, a few countries are demonstrating that it can be done.

Where do the maternal deaths occur?

.

Where do the child deaths occur?

Source: Levels & Trends in Child Mortality. UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation. 2011

MMR # Maternal LTR AnnualDeaths Maternal MMR

Death ReductionBolivia 180 470 150 -5.8 on trackPeru 98 600 370 -5.2 +progressGhana 350 2600 66 -3.3 +progressKenya 530 7900 38 1.8 no progressSudan 750 9700 32 -0.5 insuff progIndia 230 63000 140 -4.9 +progressTimor-Leste 370 160 44 -3.2 +progressUSA 24 1000 2100 3.7Sweden 7 5 11,400 -1.6

Inequities Within Regions

Source: Trends in Maternal Mortality: 1990 to 2008, WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA and The World Bank. 2010.

Inequities Within Countries

Source: Skolink. Global Health 101.

Progress in Reducing Maternal and Child Deaths is also Unequal

MMR (per 100,000 live births), 1990 to 2008

Reducing MMR:Much Variation Between Countries

Source: Hogan et al. Maternal mortality for 181 countries, 1980–2008: a systematic analysis of progress towards Millennium Development Goal 5. Lancet 2010; 375: 1609–23

Source: Levels & Trends in Child Mortality. UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation. 2011

Reducing U5MR: Not all Countries are Equal

What Drives Inequities Across and Within Countries?

Determinants

Socio-political-economic factors and policies

MMR GNI PC Annual MDG5(USD) MMR

Reduction Bolivia 180 4640 -5.8 on trackPeru 98 8930 -5.2 +progressGhana 350 1660 -3.3 +progressKenya 530 1680 1.8 no progressSudan 750 2030 -0.5 insuff progIndia 230 3550 -4.9 +progressTimor-Leste 370 3600 -3.2 +progressUSA 24 47360 3.7Sweden 7 39730 -1.6

GNI PC and MMR / MMR Reduction

Source: Trends in Maternal Mortality: 1990 to 2008, WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA and The World Bank. 2010.

GNI PC and MMR

Source: Markle. Understanding Global Health.

Economic growth and U5MR

Source: Save the Children

Race / Ethnicity and Child Health

•Burden of low birth weight in US – highest among low income and populations of color

Child Mortality:↑2x poverty, ↑2x rural, ↑3x lack

maternal education

Poverty and Child Mortality

• In 18 of 26 developing countries with substantive declines in U5MR, inequality in U5MR between the poorest 20% and the richest 20% either stayed the same or increased.

Percent of women who have a final say in decision making regarding their own health

Source: WHO Report on the Social Determinants of Health

Access to Care: SBA

Equity and Access to Care: SBA

Source: 2005 World Health Report. WHO.

Equity and Access to Care: Malaria Interventions

Fall in the standardized death rate per 100,000 population for nine common

infectious diseases in relation to specific medical measures for the United States, 1900-1973 (Source: McKinlay , J. B., & McKinlay, S. M. (1977). The questionable contribution of medical measures to the decline of mortality in the United States in the twentieth century. Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly. Health and Society, 55 (3), 405-428.)

But remember -- technology is not the only answer….

Maternal Health Problems

• ~200 million pregnancies / year

• ~75 million unwanted pregnancies

• ~20 million unsafe abortions

• ~350,000 maternal deaths

• 1 maternal death = 20 maternal morbidities

What are the medical causes of maternal deaths?

Most causes can be prevented with treatment by SBA in facilities

Current approaches to reducing maternal mortality

• Antenatal care

• Improving skills of birth attendants– Traditional birth attendants (TBAs)– Skilled professional attendant at delivery

(SBAs)

• Emergency Obstetric Care (EmOC)

• Postpartum care

• Family planning

Why do so many women lack skilled birth care?

1. Delay in decision to seek care– Lack of understanding of complications– Acceptance of maternal death– Low status of women– Socio-cultural barriers to seeking care

2. Delay in reaching care– Geography (mountains, islands, rivers) – no realistic access– Poor transport & organization

3. Delay in receiving quality care– Shortages of supplies, personnel, transport to higher facility– Poorly trained personnel with punitive attitude– Finances

Child Health Problems

7.6 Million Child Deaths in 2008:Equivalent to a tsunami every few days

Undernutrition = underlying cause >1/3 of deaths

Two-thirds of child deaths can be averted with interventions that are

already available and recommended for wide scale coverage.

However…Poor progress in increasing coverage of many basic interventions

Data from African countries. Reproduced from UNICEF ChildInfo website: http://www.childinfo.org/pneumonia_progress.phpand based on UNICEF global databases, 2009.

Summary

• Maternal health problems are often not predictable and may require facility based medical interventions

• Many common child health problems can be dealt with via community-based public health strategies

• Newborn health problems require a mixture of the two approaches

Photo: WHO/C Black

Summary

• Aggregate statistics (e.g. national MMR or U5MR) are insufficient

• Strategies needed to reach most vulnerable populations with interventions

• Necessary to impact determinants and socio-political-economic policies that drive health in order to make deeper and long-lasting impact on MCH

session objectives

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