News

Manual to improve maternal health launched

November 4, 2015 4:03 am

A new, first of its kind manual was launched today in Suva and aims to improve the care of mothers and babies in hospital around the country.

Titled – “The Infection Prevention and Control in Maternity Units” the manual was developed by the Australian government’s Fiji Health Sector Support programme and the Ministry of Health.

At the launch the manual, Minister for Health Jone Usamate says the manual will be used to train doctors, nurses and midwives to reduce and prevent infections in the maternity facilities and reduce complications due to infections

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“In Fiji we’ve had a 50 percent reduction in maternal deaths from preventable causes in 2015 compared to 1990 so there has been some real progress but we have not attained the levels of achievement that we want which is a 75 percent reduction.”

Usamate says in 2014 Fiji’s maternal mortality rate was at 44.4 per hundred thousand births.