Multi-Country review meeting on maternal mortality and morbidity audit “Beyond the Numbers”, Report of a WHO meeting, Charvak, Uzbekistan 14–17 June 2010

2010

Every year, many women suffer pregnancy-related complications and a number die; added to this is the burden of perinatal mortality and morbidity. Most maternal and perinatal complications and deaths can be averted with basic and effective low cost interventions, even in countries where resources are limited. Within the WHO Making Pregnancy Safer programme, Beyond the Numbers (BTN) presents a series of approaches that show how this can be accomplished through the use of appropriate case reviews, analysis and dissemination of recommendations. The 1st European regional BTN workshop was held in Issyk Kul, Kyrgyzstan in 2004, the 2nd was held in Yerevan, Armenia, in 2005, involving in total 14 countries in the WHO European region. The objectives of the workshops were to introduce the concepts of BTN and demonstrate how they can be used as tools for improving clinical management and outcome of care. Furthermore to support countries in selecting and implementing BTN approaches tailored to local conditions in line with their specific needs and available resources. In the following years several of these countries started implementation of Confidential Enquiries into Maternal Deaths and Near Miss Case Reviews. The multi-country review meeting, Charvak, Uzbekistan 2010, invited teams from countries in the Region which started implementation of selected BTN approaches, to share lessons learned and experience to further improve and enhance the positive effect of the quality of care for mothers and babies in the countries.