Between 1990 and 2014, significant results were obtained for reducing child and maternal mortality, as set by the fourth and fifth Millennium Development Goals. However, there are alarming disparities from country to country and between rural and urban regions with concentrations of mortality in the poorest rural areas of Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia. To address these problems, top priority should be given to interventions designed to make emergency obstetric services (EmOC) available and accessible to everyone.
The study, published in the International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics presents data collected in the Yirol hospital of South Sudan, managed by the NGO Doctors with Africa–CUAMM. It considered the number of women admitted to the hospital for delivery in 2012 and highlights improvements over previous years. An increase was seen in the total number of hospital births, which more than doubled over 2009, reaching about 13% of the 8,213 births in the area (compared to 5.9% in 2009).
The causes of this improvement can be found in an approach centered on the hospital’s operation. One of its strong points was the introduction of an ambulance in 2011. Though it is also used for other emergencies, the ambulance is managed by the maternity department, providing a free service 24 hours a day which helps women be quickly admitted to the hospital.
The study’s goal is to show how in underprivileged remote settings, such as rural South Sudan, a hospital-centered approach, supported by an ambulance referral service to peripheral areas to the main healthcare center, is a major first step to improve emergency obstetric services and directly combat high maternal and child mortality rates.
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