National Maternal and Perinatal Death Surveillance and Response (MPDSR) Programs

Maternal and perinatal death surveillance and response (MPDSR) systems are essential to ensuring quality of care. However, they are not well developed in a number of countries in the Asia-Pacific. Existing research highlights deficiencies in perinatal (stillbirth and newborn) death classification, preventable factors and the impact of COVID-19 disruptions on MPDSR in a number of countries across the Asia-Pacific. The WHO has an  extensive suit of MPDSR implementation tools. These tools provide a roadmap for conducting effective MPDSR involving clinicians, policymakers and healthcare managers. While implementing these new tools will undoubtedly be challenging and require ongoing mentoring and support, they also present a critical opportunity to generate new knowledge on their effective implementation.  

This project draws on collaborations with Ministries of Health, UNFPA, WHO and the Minimally Invasive Tissue Sampling (MITS) Alliance to implement the new MPDSR tools in Papua New Guinea, Thailand and one Pacific Island country. Driven by a health policy and systems approach, this project will support countries to implement the new MPDSR tools as part of an accountability system to ensure results are able to be translated into local quality improvement measures and will support the development and implementation of WHO MPDSR tools in other countries across the Asia-Pacific region.