Perinatal Death Surveillance and Response
investigating stillbirths and infant deaths and reducing them
If professional delivery and resuscitation care were available for every baby and high-risk delivery were promptly diagnosed, as many as 3 million stillbirths and newborn deaths may be avoided annually. But in nations with limited resources, this medical care can be lacking. Incomplete reporting, surveillance, and death registration systems may also exist in these nations; one function of perinatal death surveillance systems is to identify and track the frequency and characteristics of perinatal fatalities (i.e., deaths that occur around the time of birth).
The Maternal Death Surveillance and Response system and the Perinatal Death Surveillance and Response system both adhere to the same general guidelines (MDSR). Similar to MDSR, CDC and WHO worked together to provide PDSR recommendations that various nations can adapt and adjust.
In order to establish or enhance systems for identifying, notifying, and assessing stillbirths and newborn deaths in medical facilities and in communities in high-mortality settings, the CDC offers technical support to other nations. The CDC has assisted other nations by assessing their current death tracking systems and aiding them to:
Monitor all pregnancy outcomes (live births, stillbirths, newborn deaths) and the care they received, and document all stillbirth and newborn deaths.
Strengthen the system of perinatal reviews to include all stillbirths and pre-discharge newborn deaths.
Adapt PDSR guidelines to fit their setting.
Assess and interpret the PDSR data to guide surveillance and medical care improvements.
CDC’s assistance with PDSR includes:
Evaluating the surveillance system set up in Ethiopia as part of the Saving Mothers, Giving Life initiative (SMGL), and training and guiding staff to improve the system’s efficiency. This included introducing a verbal and social autopsy
Plan to develop in collaboration with WHO.
Training staff in Mustahil Woreda to conduct perinatal death surveillance, including conducting cause-of-death analyses.
Improving perinatal death reporting in Mustahil Woreda and Shebele Zone and Distributing national surveillance guidelines.
Conducting surveillance of all stillbirths and newborn deaths in health facilities in Mustahil Woreda Shable Zone of the Somali Region from 2018 through 2023.
Get and Download the Ethiopia National MPDSR Guideline
