Maternal mortality rate remains high

Santo Domingo.- Despite president Danilo Medina’s stated goal of reducing maternalmortality, 99 deaths have been registered so far this year, three more than during thesame period in 2012.

Accordingto the “Situation Analysis of Children and Adolescents in the DominicanRepublic,” 80% of the maternal deaths that occur in the country are preventable.

Lack offulfillment of the rules, guidelines and care procedures, bio-security, delay inemergency obstetric care, shortages of medicines and equipment and the lack ofspecialized personnel on duty in the hospitals are the main factors associatedwith this situation, according to the study.

Fivematernal deaths were registered in week 32, according to the latest Ministry ofHealth Epidemiological Report.

Thehospitals with the highest death rates are José María Cabral y Báez, with 22,Nuestra Señora de la Altagracia Maternity Hospital, with 12, Los Mina MaternityHospital, nine, Luis Eduardo Aybar, eight, Jaime Mota, four, JuanPablo Pina, three, General Santiago Rodríguez, two, Antonio Musa, two, and FranciscoMoscoso Puello, two. Another 31 unnamed centers registered 35 maternaldeaths between them.

The maincauses of maternal death are linked to hypertension, hemorrhage, sepsis andabortions and miscarriages, according to the report. It points out thatalthough some improvements have been made since the implementation of the ZeroTolerance program, the country will not meet the objective of reducing thematernal mortality rate by 75% by 2015. This would mean reaching a rate below47 per 100,000 in 2015, says the study.

Last yearthe Dominican Republic registered 175 maternal deaths, most occurring in theprovince of Santo Domingo, according to the health authorities.