With a focus on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, Nigeria is looking to accelerate efforts to improve outcomes for women and babies. There is global consensus that accurate information about causes of death through mortality audits is needed to help inform efforts to end preventable maternal and perinatal deaths. Maternal and Perinatal Death Surveillance and Response (MPDSR) is a continuous cycle of identification, notification, and review of maternal and perinatal deaths, followed by actions to improve quality of care and prevent future deaths. It is an established mechanism to examine the circumstances surrounding each death, including any breakdowns in care from the household to the health facility that may have been preventable. There is global consensus that this process is an important part of the continuous action cycle for quality improvement that can link data from the local to the national level.
The Nigerian Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) adopted the Maternal and Perinatal Death Surveillance and Response policy and guidelines in 2016. Since other maternal and perinatal death audit models had been practiced in the country, the FMOH and supporting partners sought to understand these models in order to improve implementation of the policy.
Read the full report with State profiles and brief on this resource page.