Maternal and Perinatal Death Surveillance and Response (MPDSR) is an established, sound and robust system for reviewing maternal deaths and establishing nationwide enquiries into deaths during pregnancy labour and puerperium. MPDSR is a system that measures and tracks all maternal and perinatal deaths in real time, helps to understand the underlying factors contributing to the deaths, and stimulates and guides actions to prevent future deaths. It is a form of continuous surveillance that links the health information system and quality improvement processes from local to national levels, permits routine identification, notification, quantification, and determination of causes of maternal and perinatal deaths, and is useful information to help respond with actions that will prevent future deaths (World Health Organization, 2021a). MPDSR also supports the delivery of quality maternal and newborn health care (World Health Organization, 2021b).
MPDSR has been identified by multiple global and regional bodies as a priority for ending preventable maternal and newborn deaths and stillbirths. The World Health Organization (WHO) released global technical guidelines on Maternal Death Surveillance and Response (MDSR) (World Health Organization, 2013) in 2013, and a perinatal death audit in 2016 (World Health Organization, 2016a). In 2020, WHO listed MPDSR among the essential interventions to mitigate the indirect effects of COVID-19 on maternal and perinatal outcomes (World Health Organization, 2020). Operational guidance and tools to support MPDSR implementation were released in September 2021 (World Health Organization, 2021c). Global priority for MPDSR has been demonstrated through inclusion in the United Nations Secretary-General’s Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health in 2015 (Every Woman Every Child, 2015), and as part of the accountability milestone of the Ending Preventable Maternal Mortality (EPMM): A Renewed Focus for Improving Maternal and Newborn Health and Well-being in 2021 (World Health Organization and United Nations Children’s Fund, 2021). In Africa, institutionalizing MPDSR is one of the priorities of the African Union Commission’s action plan towards ending preventable maternal, newborn and child mortality in Africa since 2013 (United Nations Population Fund, 2013).
The joint United Nations (i.e. WHO, UNFPA and UNICEF) regional offices in East and Southern Africa (ESA) have been supporting countries and facilitating south-south learning to strengthen MPDSR in the region. As countries adapt and apply this guidance, implementation gaps and challenges remain in preventing successful MPDSR uptake (Kinney et al., 2021). The United Nations inter-agency partners started to monitor MPDSR in ESA through the standard biennial survey in 2014. A MPDSR regional status report for 2016 and 2018 have been produced and disseminated to enhance the quality and use of MPDSR. This report represents the status of MPDSR in 2021, and documents the progress made since 2016.
Source: United Nations Population Fund