Purpose
To help you to understand the scope and burden of maternal and newborn ill health at global, regional and country levels.
- Understand the global issues, trends and regional differences of the scope and burden of maternal and newborn ill health.
- Know what the commonly used indicators are and where on the internet you can obtain specific health service data.
- Recognise how exploring the data can provide valuable pointers for quality improvement needs in the geographical regions in which you work.
Introduction
Maternal and neonatal mortality reduction continue as key international development goals within the wider post 2015 sustainable development agenda, and data is important in informing progress towards achievement of these goals.
This section will take a more in-depth look at some of the indicators and related health service data used to measure the scope and burden of maternal and newborn ill health, as well as looking at the impact of quality improvements. We will explore key indicators of coverage (outputs of health services), such as antenatal care and deliveries by skilled birth attendants.
Some commonly used sources of data include the following:
- Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS)
- Global Health Observatory at the World Health Organization (GHO)
- Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME)
In addition, the following sites may also be useful for reports of global estimates and trends, and tables and illustrative graphics on global data:
- Countdown to 2015
- Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (IGME)
- The Maternal Mortality Estimation Inter-agency Group (MMEIG)
- The State of the World’s Midwifery
- The State of the World’s Children
Aspects of the quality of care as a desired outcome, change as a result of improvements to the health systems, and the measurement of quality of care in maternal and newborn health will be discussed in later units.
References - View all
- World Health Organization (WHO), (Website) Global Health Observatory (GHO) data
- Maternal Mortality Estimation Inter-agency Group (MMEIG), (Website) Maternal Mortality Estimation Inter-agency Group (MMEIG)
- Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (IGME), (Website) Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (IGME)
- Countdown to 2015, (Website) Countdown to 2015. Maternal, Newborn & Child Survival
- UNFPA, (2014) The State of the World’s Midwifery (SoWMy) 2014
- UNICEF, (Website) The State of the World’s Children
- Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), (Website) Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME)