Tag Archives: maternal death surveillance

Seminar 2: Applying maternal death surveillance and response in crisis settings

Watch the live recording of the event here!

Event information

Date and Time: Thursday 23rd March 2017, 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm, followed by refreshments

Location: John Snow Lecture Theatre, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), Keppel Street, London, WC1E 7HT, UK

LSHTM & MDSR AN Seminar 2_event advert_imageOverview:

Mothers and their babies face greater risks to their survival during humanitarian crises. However, there is a dearth of evidence about how best to apply reproductive health interventions effectively in crisis settings. Understanding why women and their babies die in these specific circumstances is pivotal to designing appropriate interventions to prevent deaths from similar causes.

This seminar will explore tools and approaches to maternal death surveillance and response (MDSR) in crisis settings with presentations on the following:

  • Value of MDSR data and systems in crisis settings, and in contributing to achieving  sexual and reproductive health rights
  • Approaches to measuring maternal mortality in refugee settings and responding to findings
  • Participatory ethnographic evaluation research (PEER) as a tool to triangulate MDSR findings in crisis settings

Speakers:

  • Rajat Khosla, Human Rights Adviser – Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, World Health Organization, Geneva
  • Nadine Cornier, Humanitarian Adviser – Reproductive Health & Head of Office, UNFPA, Turkey
  • Eleanor Brown, Technical Specialist – Options, London

Moderator: Sarah Moxon, Research Fellow, the March Centre for Maternal, Adolescent, Reproductive and Child Health, LSHTM

This event is a collaboration between the Health in Humanitarian Crises Centre, the Global MDSR Action Network and the MARCH Centre for Maternal, Adolescent, Reproductive and Child Health

Admission and registration: It is free to attend this seminar, but registration is required. Registration is now closed.

To learn more about the seminar series, Innovations in Maternal and Perinatal Health in Humanitarian Settings: Exploring Evidence and Innovations to Improve Maternal and Newborn Survival among Populations Affected by Humanitarian Crises, click here.

Email: mdsr@evidence4action.net

Twitter: @E4AMamaYeAfrica #MDSR

The live stream recording is available here.

Watch this space for additional recordings of the event and access to supplementary materials.

Read more about the seminar series here.

Find out more about the first seminar of the series: Innovations to improve maternal and newborn death surveillance to respond to future Ebola outbreaks here.

How legal and policy frameworks support MDSR in Jamaica

Image_map of JamaicaProfessor Affette McCaw-Binns, a Reproductive Health Epidemiologist at the University of the West Indies (Mona) and Dr Simone Spence, Director of Family Health Services at the Ministry of Health in Jamaica explain how legislation and policy strengthened the reporting of maternal deaths in Jamaica. This case study describes how the policy framework was amended to improve the reporting of maternal deaths and how other interventions implemented simultaneously together strengthen the maternal death surveillance and response (MDSR) system.

BackgroundImage_Dr Simone Spence_thumbnailImage_Prof Affette McCaw-Binns_Thumbnail

In the early 1980s1,2, maternal deaths in Jamaica were significantly under-reported in vital registration records by as much as 75%. With over 80% of all live births occurring in public hospitals2 it was suggested that establishing a surveillance system at public hospitals could capture needed information about the number of maternal deaths in the country. Given the findings3, the government agreed to implement an active (as opposed to the pre-existing passive) surveillance system to monitor maternal deaths.

This case study will describe the approaches that the government adopted, including how the legal framework was used in support of strengthening the MDSR system and reversing under-reporting.  Continue reading →