In Kaduna State, the United Nations Population Fund is collaborating with key players to end preventable maternal and perinatal mortality at the local level.
This information was provided in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Tuesday in Kaduna by Mr. Shinkut Sheyin, the State Implementing Partner for UNFPA Projects at the Planning and Budget Commission.
This, according to Sheyin, is being accomplished through the expansion of the state’s Community Maternal, Perinatal Death Surveillance and Response (cMPDSR) program.
According to him, the Fund’s program for behavioral change communication includes community involvement in MPDSR.
He claims that the action will improve women, adolescents, and young people’s access to sexual and reproductive health information and services since they are frequently further behind.
He defined MPDSR as an investigation into the reasons of each maternal and perinatal mortality, including any avoidable breakdown in care from the home or medical facility.
The community becomes involved when this is often done at the facility level and becomes cMPDSR.
“At the community level, members consider the potential cultural, socioeconomic, and health issues that may have influenced mother or child death and discuss strategies to get rid of them and avoid recurrence,” he said.
He stated that the group meets once a month to talk about the causes of maternal and neonatal fatalities and to encourage institutional delivery by way of verbal autopsy.
Verbal autopsy, according to NAN, is a technique for identifying causes of death and cause-specific mortality fractions in communities lacking a comprehensive vital registration system.
Verbal autopsies involve a professional interviewer utilizing a questionnaire to obtain details from a person acquainted with the deceased about the indications, symptoms, and demographics of a recently deceased person.
Sheyin said that UNFPA has helped expand cMPDSR to the 23 Council areas’ remaining five local government areas: Kaduna North, Chikun, Zaria, Birnin Gwari, and Igabi.
Using the instruments for cMPDSR implementation and reporting, he said that the 55 new cMPDSR committee members in the five councils had been mobilized to start cMPDSR in their organizations.
Sheyin said that each council has an average of 11 members on the committee, including the focal person for the Health Management Information System, traditional birth attendants, and the council’s coordinator for reproductive health.
Others include the focal point for community participation, the health secretary, and the officer in charge of hospitals.
He continued by saying that information on MPDSR operations was gathered from the 30 secondary facilities in the state in order to eradicate preventable causes of maternal and perinatal mortality, particularly at the level of health facilities.
Key stakeholders examined and validated the data, he said, adding that the 2021 MPDSR Annual Report had also been reviewed and will be released soon.
(NAN)
