Nigeria’s Maternity Wards Go Digital To Audit Births

 Nigeria’s largest online health news publication Nigeria Health Watch profiled RFPD’s Nationwide Family Planning Campaign in their January 7, 2020 issue. The news agency reports that building on the success of its pilot project and the lessons learned from 20 project hospitals in Kano and Kaduna States, the Rotarian Action Group for Population and Development initiated the systematic integration of “Obstetric Quality Assurance” (OQA) and “Maternal and Perinatal Death Surveillance and Response” (MPDSR) to cover all 36 states of Nigeria. This allowed medical and administrative staff to work together to reduce maternal and child mortality. Between 2008 and 2010 infant mortality declined by 15 percent while maternal mortality declined by 37 percent in participating hospitals, according to project records. 

 And here is how the RFPD-project makes a difference: The clinics record every birth by registering and monitoring each incoming mother. They introduced standards of measure and made data collection and analysis compulsory, in order to find suitable solutions to specific problems which were contributing to the deaths of mothers and their babies. Family planning was adopted in the project. All this was being done manually on paper before RPFD launched the digital Obstetric Quality Assurance model in 10 hospitals. The tool measures three standards of quality: structure, process and outcome. Improvements in the outcome (the health of mothers and babies) are achieved by analysing the processes — the qualifications and skills of medical personnel handling mothers. These processes can only be improved when structures such as buildings, equipment, water supply, power supply, hygienic conditions are available to support doctors to do their work.

 Read more here: https://nigeriahealthwatch.com/nigerias-maternity-wards-go-digital-to-audit-births/#.Xi7d4S2B3_8