Minister of Health, Hon. Rudyard Spencer says the Ministry is in dialogue with the European Union and other international agencies to secure funding support for the Safe Motherhood Programme in Jamaica. Minister Spencer was speaking at this morning’s ceremony to indicate the Ministry’s recommitment to the programme. The event was held at the Victoria Jubilee Hospital in Kingston.

Minister Spencer says the aim is to strengthen areas such as policy development, surveillance, quality of care, monitoring and evaluation. He says the Ministry also intends to renew its focus on public education to include community members and health care providers.

“The Ministry will be renewing the National Strategic Plan on Safe Motherhood. The latest five year plan comes to an end in December 2011. We will also be re-establishing the national maternal mortality review committee by the end of this year to analyze why women die during pregnancy and immediately after and to use this information to guide policies and programmes to improve maternal health,” said Minister Spencer.

The Safe Motherhood initiative is among other things aimed at reducing the maternal mortality rate and thereby protecting the family and its foundations. As part of the Millennium Development Goals, Jamaica is expected to reduce the Maternal Mortality Ratio by 75% in a bid to secure an overall improvement in maternal health from the 1990 levels by 2015. Jamaica’s Maternal Mortality Rate has been relatively high for the past twenty years and has leveled off since without much further decline. The maternal mortality rate moved from 110 per 100,000 live births in 2000 to 83 per 100,000 live births in 2007. Jamaica however needs to achieve a target of at most 27 per 100,000 by 2015. Infant and child mortality rates are 19 and 21 per 1,000 live births down from 25 and 28 respectively in 1990.

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 Contact: MOH, Public Relations Unit Tel: 967-1561

You can view this press release and other information on our website at www.moh.gov.jm