Fewer mums would die if villages held birth drugs

Professor of International Child Health and head of the Centre for International Health and Development at the UCL Institute. Handing over control of birth medicines to community health workers could cut maternal deaths across Africa by 60,000 a year, a new study reveals. Better access to medicines for haemorrhage and infection drugs via community health workers and village volunteers could reduce the amount of mums who die giving birth by 32 per cent.

The findings by researchers at University College London (UCL) are reported an upcoming edition of The Lancet, medical journal The safest place for a woman to give birth, the report said, is an equipped and staffed health facility, but in Africa many countries simply don’t have the facilities to provide this level of care, it said. “The reality for many is that a skilled attendant and a well-equipped facility is a distant dream,” said researcher, Anthony Costello, global health specialist and professor at UCL. He mentioned how giving villagers better access to oral rehydration mixes for children made a considerable impact on child health.

Every year, more than half a million women die from pregnancy or childbirth complications – and 90 per cent of these deaths are in Africa and Asia, according to figures from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA). Some top causes of mothers dying in childbirth are: haemorrhaging, infection, unsafe abortion, eclampsia and obstructed labour, according to the UN World Health Organization. Making misoprostol (a medicine for haemorrhage) and antibiotics available through village health workers or volunteers at the same time as strengthening health systems would make the biggest impact, the research found.

The report says: "Our model shows that in Malawi and across sub-Saharan Africa, improved access to misoprostol and antibiotics through community interventions could have substantial benefit in reduction of maternal deaths." “We are not saying we should go and roll out these drugs in communities immediately but that this approach should be evaluated on a large scale and with mortality rates of mothers and infants carefully monitored, " Mr Costello said. In a Comment, alongside the report, Dr Richard Horton, Editor of The Lancet, said: "The mathematical model in today's report has the potential to transform our attitudes to maternal health. We might now be able to contemplate donor-funded drug-delivery programmes, akin to those available for HIV-AIDS and tuberculosis, in addition to health-facility strengthening. Such a strategy might radically alter the prospects for pregnant women in low-income settings."

By Hayley Jarvis for SOS Children