Countries with high maternal mortality rates often lack functional systems to accurately capture and identify the causes of these deaths. The Maternal Death Surveillance and Response (MDSR) system, introduced by WHO over a decade ago, is meant to assists countries with inadequate civil registration systems. It involves a cycle of activities typically divided into four key stages: notification and identification, review, analysis and recommendation, and response and monitoring. By systematically gathering and reviewing data, ideally on all maternal deaths, whether in health facilities or communities, the MDSR aims to uncover the underlying factors contributing to the deaths and evaluate the quality of care provided to pregnant women and new mothers.
Despite increasing adoption of the MDSR system in numerous low- or middle-income countries, the implementation of the MDSR faces various challenges, including financial constraints, technical difficulties, governance issues, and problems related to human resource motivation. These challenges have been documented to lead to underreporting, selective reporting, misattribution of causes of death, and to certain defensive medical practices. Overcoming these obstacles is vital for the MDSR to achieve its full potential which is to contribute to the reduction of maternal mortality and improving maternal health outcomes globally. Further research is essential to address these issues effectively.
This website is run by MATRISET (Reporting in Context: An Interdisciplinary Initiative to Strengthen Maternal Health Services and Surveillance in Ethiopia and Tanzania (MATRISET). This Research Council of Norway-funded research project aims to strengthen the reporting in maternal mortality surveillance systems. The project is carried out in Ethiopia and Tanzania by an interdisciplinary research group from the social sciences, law, and medicine. The project aims to generate knowledge to enhance global maternal mortality reporting and corrective action.