IIM-A workshop on maternal mortality

To reduce the maternal mortality rate by 2015 "" named the ' Development Goal "", an entity under the aegis of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad will hold an international workshop on 'Maternal Mortality Reduction by Improving Emergency Obstetric Care (EmOC) in India' in collaboration with Columbia University, US.

At present, about 1 lakh women die every year during child birth in India, which is about 20 per cent of total global maternal deaths.

The programme has been funded by Bill and Mellinda Gates Foundation and supported by Columbia University under Averting Maternal Deaths and Disability Programme (AMDD).

The three-day workshop, to be held from October 18 to October 20, will feature presentations and discussions by various experts to chalk out effective strategies to reduce maternal deaths focusing on Emergency Obstetric Care (EmOC) services in the country.

"Government has adopted for various health programmes, but the focus has remained on family planning and child mortality. Fairly good success has been achieved in controlling the high population growth rate but not much attention has been paid to the development of emergency services for the pregnant women in country. We aim at sensitising the policy makers of the states towards the high rate of deaths of women in child birth," said Dileep Mavalankar, associate professor of IIM-A and also senior advisor for AMDD programme.

The organisers also aims at providing a platform to experts, international agency representatives and academics from the field of family welfare and health to share their experiences of implementation of EmOC at state level and also from other countries.

"We plan to organise one more such workshop in year end for the implementation on the basis of the conclusions we will derive from the workshop. The infrastructure for emergency services at national level needs to be improved to reduce the deaths of women in child birth.

The experience of other nations that have developed the EmOC have shown the desired results," added Mavalankar.

Experts such as Anoma Jayathilaka, representing the Sri Lankan government, Arvind Mathur of WHO, G N V Ramana of World Bank, D K Mangal of UNFPA and Pavitra Mohan of UNICEF will take part in the three-day workshop.