Maternal and newborn deaths are a major concern in Uganda. One of the objectives of the Ministry of Health (MOH) is to improve the quality of care of mothers and newborns in order to achieve Millenium Development Goal (MDG) 4 and 5, which aim to reduce child mortality and to improve maternal health respectively by 2015. To help achieve these goals, the MOH has since 2000 put in place mechanisms for maternal death audits/ reviews and of recent maternal death notification. In 2008, the Ministry decided to incorporate perinatal death auditing owing to its close linkage with maternal deaths.
These guidelines were adapted from the World Health Organizations Guide: "Beyond the Numbers", which was commissioned by the Making Pregnancy Safer Department of the World Health Organization. This guide has been adapted through a number of consultations at both the national and district level.