Globally, there are high rates of death among pregnant women and new-born babies due to poor quality of care. Reviewing deaths of mothers and babies helps health workers, governments and community members to identify and solve issues in access and quality of care. This process, known as Maternal and Perinatal Death Surveillance and Response (MPDSR), can reduce deaths by a third. In many countries, MPDSR has not had the expected impact due to:

  • weak health systems with poor leadership
  • exclusion of communities from the process
  • insufficient resources
  • lack of training

Fear of blame and punishment discourages people from reporting deaths or providing complete information, so discussions do not address the main issues, and the necessary actions are not taken. Lack of change demotivates health workers and communities. More evidence is needed on how to build a cost-efficient, acceptable MPDSR process, adapted and integrated within local country health systems.

Opti-MaP is a four-year project funded by the UKā€™s National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). It aims to improve reporting, review and response to deaths of mothers and babies in Ethiopia, Ghana and Uganda, and to evaluate the effect of doing this on death rates of babies. We will work with community members and stakeholders in Uganda, Ghana, and Ethiopia to study how deaths of mothers and babies are currently identified, reported and reviewed, and what changes are made in response.

Phase 1 (2024-2025)

  • in-depth research on current MPDSR practices
  • developing tools to address the main barriers to MPDSR implementation

Phase 2

  • each country team will create an ā€œintervention packageā€ based on the tools we have developed

Phase 3 (2026-2028)

  • testing the effectiveness of our packages
  • introducing the package into three districts in each country, starting at different times
  • counting deaths of women and babies before and during implementation

If this approach reduces deaths, and is cost-effective, we will support countries in scaling it up and our materials will be made available online. This will help to reduce preventable deaths and improve quality of care for women and their babies.

This project is led by the University of Southampton,
in proud collaboration with universities across Africa and beyond.

Haramya university - Building the basis for development