jmwanja@standardmedia.co.ke
Mexico: Strong government commitment, robust policies and suitable placement of resources have been cited as pillars to improve maternal and child health globally.
At the first day of the Global Maternal Newborn Health Conference in Mexico City, governments, policy makers and development partners documented the successes to improve the health of both mothers and children.
Global Health Assistant Administrator at USAID Ariel Pablos-Mendez appreciated that despite the world’s population doubling in the last four decades, the number of children who die every year from preventable causes has decreased from 17 million annually in 1970 to less than six million annually in the globally today.
Dr Pablos- Mendez said this trend had boldened the global call to bring down the numbers and thereby improve the number of infants that live to see their fifth birthdays.
Dr Pablos- Mendez cited Mexico as a case study where the improvement of health indicators had been influenced by deliberate funding in this area of health.
In ‘Acting on the call’ report released in June this year, free maternity care and an initiative by First Lady Margaret Kenyatta, Beyond Zero, were lauded for mobilizing resources towards ending maternal and child deaths.
In Kenya, the number of children dying under age of five have dropped by 30 per cent from 72 to 54 for every 1,000 live births, according to the most recent Demographic Health Survey.
“As Kenya’s experience shows, strong government commitment, implementation of appropriate policies and alignment of resources are important approaches for reducing child and maternal deaths.
The Count Down to 2015 report titled ‘A decade of tracking progress for maternal, newborn and child survival,’ released in Mexico City yesterday showed the progress of countries in advancement of infant and mothers’ health.
The number of children per woman in Mexico is an average of two children per child compared to four in Kenya, five in Tanzania, six in Uganda, four in Rwanda and two in South Africa.
Nine out of every ten women in Mexico, South Africa and Rwanda give birth with the assistance of a skilled health personnel compared to six in Kenya and Uganda and five in Tanzania within the same ratios.
“Mexico is an inspiration and shows that preventable deaths in any country are achievable,” Dr Pablos-Mendez said and further challenged governments to mobilise domestic resources to bridge the financing gaps to support the health sectors in their respective countries.
According to the Countdown to 2015 report, Mexico is one of the countries that has met the Abuja declaration for the allocation of 15 per cent of government budget to the health docket.
Mexico set the pace for the financing for health compared to Kenya’s health expenditure at six per cent, 24 per cent in Uganda, 22 per cent in Rwanda, 14 per cent in South Africa, 11 per cent in Tanzania and four per cent in South Sudan.
“We need to focus on the inequalities that exist in our countries to address the challenges that will see that we save 100 million more children in the next 20 years,’ he said.
Dr Jeffrey Smith from Jhpiego cited bleeding, high blood pressure, infections and unsafe abortions, as the main causes of deaths in pregnant women, whereas newborns died if they were born too soon, failure to breathe on birth and newborn infections.
“Birth is the greatest time of greatest risk of death and disability for mothers and newborns,” said Dr Smith, who is also an obstetrician-gynecologist and public health practitioner.
Dr Smith noted the critical role of the midwives describing them as the frontline workers for the maternal-newborn continuum of care. He said Africa and Asia are well anchored in recognsing their roles.
“Doctors cannot be in every village but midwives can,” said Dr Smith at a media briefing at Kystral Hotel in Mexico City.
