State’s maternal and child health improves
SIBU: The level of maternal and child health in the state has seen improvements.
Minister of Welfare, Women and Family Development Datuk Fatimah Abdullah noted the progress was in tandem with national improvements over the years.
“In Sarawak, MMR (maternal mortality ratio) has also seen an improvement from 30.8 per 100,000 live births in 2008 to 18.5 per 100,000 live births last year,” she said when launching the International Conference on Maternal and Child Health on Thursday.
She said nationwide MMR halved between 1957 and 1970 when it fell from 280 to 141 per 100,000 live births.
“By the 1990s, the national MMR declined further from 44 to 25.2 per 100,000 live births between 1991 and 2011.”
Fatimah said the improvements were the result of synergy in a wide range of policies, strategies and programmes that have addressed access to services.
“They include family planning; increased professional skills of trained delivery attendants to manage pregnancy and delivery complications; investments in upgrading the quality essential obstetric care in district hospitals; improved efficiency of referral and feedback systems to prevent delays; close engagement with communities to remove social and cultural constraints; and improved acceptance of modern maternal health services as well as improved monitoring systems,” she said.
She pointed out that improvements in child health and survival have been part of national development goals since the First Malaysia Plan in 1966.
The under-five mortality rate (U5MR) declined from 18 per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 7.7 in 2012.
“Infant mortality rate (IMR) has also declined from 16 per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 6.3 in 2009.
“Vaccines and oral rehydration for the treatment of diarrhoea as well as the availability of child health services that control communicable diseases and immunisation have been made widely accessible even in rural areas through the country’s primary healthcare system,” she said.
Fatimah said these advances combined with increased access to clean water, improved sanitation and better child nutrition have been key determinants for the dramatic decline in infant and child mortality rates over the past four decades.
She added that Malaysia’s infant and under-five child mortality rates were now comparable to those of highly industrialised countries.
In Sarawak, MMR (maternal mortality ratio) has also seen an improvement from 30.8 per 100,000 live births in 2008 to 18.5 per 100,000 live births last year.
Datuk Fatimah Abdullah, Minister of Welfare, Women and Family Development