Seminar on emergency obstetric and newborn care

With a view to assessing the need of Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care (EmONC) in 24 districts in Bangladesh, icddr,b conducted a study recently. To disseminate the results of the study, the organisation held a seminar at their premise, says a press release.
The study revealed that there was a huge shortfall when only about 2.5 public designated EmONC facilities per 500,000 population were identified in the study area. The shortfall was mainly due to low coverage of public designated basic EmONC facilities.
Although, private facilities in Bangladesh are not designated as EmONC facilities, a substantial number of them offer obstetric and newborn care services in urban areas.
The study also assessed gaps in availability of EmONC services that is a major concern particularly in facilities located at upazilla levels and hard-to-reach areas mainly due to unavailability of doctors and trained nurses.
In an effort to further improve maternal and child health by and beyond 2015, icddr,b also developed a Geographic Information System (GIS) to monitor and evaluate the country’s EmONC services in 24 districts.