Obstacles to improved maternal health care in Timor-Leste

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From: "Amanda Lloyd-Tait" <Intern2@pwescr.org>
Date: Jul 9, 2013 12:02 PM
Subject: (Womens ESCR) Obstacles to improved maternal health care in Timor-Leste
To: "womenescr@googlegroups.com" <womenescr@googlegroups.com>

Obstacles to improved maternal health care in Timor-Leste

Photo: Cate Heinrich/IRIN

Timor-Leste has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world

IRIN

DILI, 8 JULY 2013 - Timor–Leste has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world with the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) reporting a maternal death rate of 300 mothers per 100,000 live births in 2012. With 70 percent of the country's 1.1 million inhabitants living in remote areas only 30 percent of women give birth with a skilled birth attendant present according to a recent report entitles 'Trends in Maternal Mortality'. Therefore a focus on overcoming the existing challenges to ensure women in Timor-Leste have access to maternal healthcare services to meet their health needs, are educated on the importance of accessing health services and strengthening the quality of healthcare services in rural areas.

"Although there are 2.3 health workers for every 1,000 people, which meets the international minimum standard set by the World Health Organization (WHO), the quality and competency of these health professionals is questionable given the training available and shortage of trained doctors," Jannatul Ferdous, a maternal and child health adviser at HADIAK, a locally implemented health project, working with the Ministry of Health, told IRIN. "The main problems with providing emergency and child health services include the poor quality of health service providers, the shortage in trained health professionals and the logistics involved in accessing services," Ferdous said. 

However, even when expectant mothers can access health services there are still many challenges facing Timorese women in poor and rural areas including: limited availability of key health services such as family planning; antenatal care; skilled care at delivery; postnatal care; immunisation; vitamin supplementation and antibiotic treatments for pneumonia. With support from AusAID, the Ministry of Health is developing services with better capacity to reach isolated and rural areas through mobile health clinics that travel to more than 400 villages to provide prenatal and postnatal care for women and babies.

Source: http://www.irinnews.org/report/98374/obstacles-to-improved-maternal-health-care-in-timor-leste 

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