Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2018 Jul 5:39:16.
doi: 10.1186/s40985-018-0098-3. eCollection 2018.

Social autopsy for maternal and perinatal deaths in Bangladesh: a tool for community dialog and decision making

Animesh Biswas  1 , Junnatul Ferdoush  1 , Abu Sayeed Md Abdullah  1 , Abdul Halim  1
Affiliations
Review

Social autopsy for maternal and perinatal deaths in Bangladesh: a tool for community dialog and decision making

Animesh Biswas et al. Public Health Rev. .

Abstract

Bangladesh has an established comprehensive death review system for tracking and reviewing maternal and perinatal deaths. This death review system, established in 2010, was initially known as the "Maternal and Perinatal Death Review (MPDR) System." One of the key interventions of the MPDR system, social autopsy (SA), is generally undertaken following a maternal or perinatal death notification. Social autopsy is managed at the community level by government field health workers. The main purpose of SA is to enable community discussion and create awareness of the preventable causes of maternal or neonatal deaths. Through these conversations, it is hoped to reduce future maternal and neonatal deaths. During the scaling up of the system in Bangladesh in 2016, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoH&FW) included social autopsy as a useful intervention in reviewing death at the community level and named it "Maternal and Perinatal Death Surveillance and Response" (MPDSR). The new MPDSR tool is currently being administered for the the 2017 to 2021 period under the National Health and Nutrition Population Sector Program (HPNSP). This paper seeks to review the experiences of the social autopsy tool, from the initial MPDR system to the current MPDSR system and its role in reducing maternal and neonatal deaths in Bangladesh.

Keywords: Bangladesh; Maternal and Perinatal Death Review System; Maternal and Perinatal Death Surveillance and Response; Maternal and neonatal death; Social autopsy; Verbal autopsy.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Dr. Animesh is a public health researcher working in Bangladesh in a national research organization, the Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, Bangladesh, as Senior Scientist and Associate Director of the Reproductive and Child Health Department. Animesh’s special focus is the maternal and perinatal death review system in Bangladesh, and he is currently working with the Government, development partners, and different stakeholders. Dr. Junnatul is a Research Associate with the Public Health Department of Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, Bangladesh. Abu Sayeed Md Abdullah is a Deputy Team Leader working in the Reproductive and Child Health department of Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, Bangladesh. Dr. Abdul Halim is a Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Director of Reproductive and Child Health Department with the Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, Bangladesh. Dr. Halim is working closely with the Government, developmental partners, and stakeholders in the developmental of a national maternal and newborn health strategy for Bangladesh.The authors declare that they have no competing interests.Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

References

    1. Källander K, Kadobera D, Williams TN, Nielsen RT, Yevoo L, Mutebi A, et al. Social autopsy: INDEPTH network experiences of utility, process, practices, and challenges in investigating causes and contributors to mortality. Popul Health Metr. 2011;9(1):44. doi: 10.1186/1478-7954-9-44. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Waiswa P, Kalter HD, Jakob R, Robert E. Increased use of social autopsy is needed to improve maternal, neonatal and child health programmes in low­income countries. Bull World Health Organ. 2015:10–3. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Rao BV. Social audit and verbal autopsy on maternal deaths in Prakasam district, Andhra Pradesh. J Evol Med Dent Sci. 2014;3(27):7475–7479.
    1. Biswas A. Maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health Maternal and Perinatal Death Review (MPDR): experiences in Bangladesh. World Health Organisation. 2015 [cited 2017 Jan 19]. p. 1–5. Available from: http://www.who.int/maternal_child_adolescent/epidemiology/maternal-death....
    1. Biswas A, Rahman F, Halim A, Eriksson C, Dalal K. Maternal and Neonatal Death Review (MNDR): a useful approach to identifying appropriate and effective maternal and neonatal health initiatives in Bangladesh. Health. 2014;6:1669–1679. doi: 10.4236/health.2014.614198. - DOI

LinkOut - more resources