Main Theme

Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Maternal, Newborn and Child Health continues to issues of global and national priority. Global leaders adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in 2015 with a third goal requiring reduction of global levels of maternal, newborn and child mortality to not more than 70 per 100,000 live births, 12 neonatal deaths per 1000 livebirths and child mortality ratio of deaths per 1000 livebirths. The 2019 report of UN-Interagency group for maternal mortality estimation (UN-MMEIG) capturing trend of 2000-2017 noted that that about 295,000 girls and women die worldwide every year as a result of pregnancy and childbirth, equivalent to maternal mortality ratio of 211/100,000 live births. The burden of maternal mortality is higher on low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) of Africa and Asia with 66% of the deaths happening in Sub-Saharan Africa (where only 15% of the global population live) and Tanzania among the five countries with largest estimated count of maternal deaths globally.

Obstetric Haemorrhage remains the leading cause of maternal mortality, followed by hypertensive disorders and sepsis. Remarkable progress has been made in reducing child mortality, nonetheless neonatal mortality declined more slowly than mortality among those aged 1–59 months, with the higher risk in the first 48 hours of life. The UN-IGME’s Levels and Trends in Child Mortality report of 2021 highlights that the first month of life as the most vulnerable period for child survival, with estimated 2.4 million newborns dying in 2020. The number of newborn deaths is nearly half (47%) of all under-5 deaths that were reported in 2020 and is on the increase. Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest neonatal mortality rate in the world of 27 deaths per 1000 live births and contributes to 43% of the global burden and Tanzania ranking 10th in globally in the absolute count of neonatal deaths. Preterm birth, birth asphyxia, neonatal infection being responsible for majority of the deaths.

Tanzania’s Ministry of Health Program data shows that for the past four years maternal deaths count has been declining steadily but slowly from 1,744 in 2018, 1,657 in 2019, 1,640 in 2020, 1,588 in 2021 and 1,477 in 2022(Figure 1) while neonatal deaths declined from 11,524(2018), 9,681(2019), 8,190(2020), 6,741(2021) to 6,342 in 2022(Figure 2) during the same period. Figure 1: Trend of maternal deaths counts in Tanzania (2018-2022) Figure 2: Trend of number stillbirths, neonatal and under-five deaths in Tanzania (2018-2022).

Several high impact interventions are being implemented to reduce the unacceptably high maternal, perinatal and child mortality. This includes family planning, Respectful Maternity Care, Antenatal Care, Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care (EmONC), Essential Newborn Care, Care of Small and Sick Newborns. The conference will provide a platform to share, validate and explore opportunities for scale-up of the best practices towards reduction of maternal, newborn and child mortality.

Topics to be covered under Maternal, Newborn and Child Health theme will be:-