More access to postnatal care services can prevent death toll of moms, babies

As per a new study, policy changes are needed to save lives of mothers and newborns.

The study states that governments can substantially reduce the tragic death toll of infants and mothers by making postnatal care services more accessible, especially to impoverished and poorly educated women in rural areas.

Postnatal care for mothers and babies includes, for example, keeping them in the facility for 24 hours before discharge or visiting them as soon as possible after a home delivery; repeated assessments of mother and newborn babies allows to identify problems early and manage them promptly.

The authors of the article, based in Canada and Switzerland, analysed data from 15 low and middle-income countries and territories and found that many mothers are not using postnatal services because they are not easily accessible, too expensive, or because mothers do not know when they and their babies need them.

In Kenya, for example, fewer than 20 percent of women receive postnatal care services, while this proportion is 35 percent in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Lead author Etienne V. Langlois from the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research said that a large burden of maternal and infant deaths take place during the 42 days following delivery, yet access to postnatal care services is unacceptably low.

Another problem, our study identified, is that postnatal care services are not equitably distributed in low- and middle-income countries, where 99 percent of maternal and neonatal deaths occur, Langlois said, adding that women of low socioeconomic status with little education living in rural or remote areas have little or no access to these life-saving services.

Government and other health policy-makers should acknowledge the importance of providing postnatal care check-ups for mothers and babies, invest more and seek to increase access to postnatal care services, for example, by reducing user fees at point of care, Langlois said.

The study highlights, as one of the solutions, community-based outreach programmes for poor young women, educating them about reproductive health and explaining to them when to seek postnatal care.

The study appears in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization today.