INTERVIEW: Iran has Reduced Maternal Mortality by 80% in 18 Years: UNFPA
Dr. Mehmet Hulki UZ, the UNFPA representative in Tehran, says Iran has succeeded to reduce maternal mortality by 80 percent within 18 years.
In an exclusive interview with the Tehran Times, Hulki UZ also says, “Now in Iran 97 percent of deliveries are being achieved safely.”
The interview comes as the Iranian Health Ministry marks the International Day of the Midwife which falls on 5 May.
Following is the text of the interview:
TEHRAN TIMES: Please explain about your organization and your operation in countries?
Dr Mehmet Hulki UZ: First I want to talk about our organization and position of midwives and their importance and then I will focus on midwifery in Iran. UNFPA is one of the UN's agencies, working globally on the basis of governments' invitation. After being invited from the part of any government, we begin our duties. We assist governments and cooperate with them to achieve their polpulation policies. We support national policies and… national programs.
TEHRAN TIMES: What you do about midwifery?
Hulki UZ: UNFPA says every pregnancy must be wanted and every birth must be safe. Reproductive health is one of our priorities which means pre and post natal care and safe delivery: the result is mother and newborn will be healthy.
TEHRAN TIMES: What do you do in Iran for reproductive health?
Hulki UZ: What we do in Iran is based on government's request. We assist and provide technical information for reaching to ideal reproductive health. We have safe motherhood program. Iran has made good progress and we assist with ministry of health so that the ministry can have even collaboration with other countries especially Islamic countries. Now we are working with ministry of health to promote an environment in which the ministry can share its experiences with other Islamic countries. The other component of what we do in Iran is to generate and analyze population data. We cooperate in enumerations and also we are assisting in the enumeration of November this year. This is the works we do in Iran. This country has reduced maternal mortality rate. In 18 years, Iran has reduced 80 percent maternal mortality and this reduction is remarkable. Iran is one of the top 3 countries in the world that has reached to this standard. I want to tell about maternal health in Iran. In spite of this remarkable achievement, unfortunately every day one woman is pregnant or just delivered in Iran. This estimation of course make 420 women die every year in Iran and this is because of some problem. We believe that about 85 percent of these deaths can be prevented. We are going to have a plan in 2012 in order to find the reasons and solve this problem; surely the Iranian health ministry will do this and we will assist. UNFPA believes that Iran has the capacity to solve the problem and prevent deaths and address the issue.
TEHRAN TIMES: And about midwifery in Iran?
Hulki UZ: After reproductive health, I want to reach midwifery. We should know very well that midwifery in a society results maternal health and maternal health means newborn's health and after that we will have a healthy society and a healthy country. So governments should invest on midwifery to have the good results mentioned. When midwives are in a society, maternal mortality and child mortality will be reduced and we will enjoy a better society. When you look at Iran case, we had a good reduction of maternal mortality but we see that now Iran has 50,000 educated midwives from universities and only 19,000 midwives practice in public sectors. We don't know where are the others. When we look at the total graduated midwives, we believe that by taking the remaining midwives who are not working for public sectors to the system and the system will improve further to address the maternal health and newborn health. Of course, midwives in Iran are well educated because in this country we see a high quality education. Midwives can achieve a delivery and only in case of problem, they must assist a specialist. A delivery with only specialist is really costly and the same delivery with a midwife have 1/3 cost. So in order to having less costs and also a safe delivery, it is good to take midwives to system more than past. I do not mean that specialists should not interfere; surely whenever there is a problem, a specialist can remove it. But in the case of a normal delivery, a midwife can handle it safely. Iranian health minister is developing a family practitioner model to improve health quality in families. We believe a family practitioner with a midwife can form a good team to catch pregnancy problems. A practitioner cannot go to every home and find pregnant and solve their problems and even delivery. But midwife can do this.
TEHRAN TIMES: Future of Iran in midwifery?
Hulki UZ: We know that very soon Iran will arrive to a stage that is ideal in maternal and newborn health. Now in Iran 97 percent of deliveries are being achieved safely. But the problem is that many of this deliveries handled by specialist. Anyway there are numbers of pregnancies which are ended by midwives and we should not forget it.
TEHRAN TIMES: Iran is really successful in family planning. How do you evaluate it? And what is the position of Iran in the case?
Hulki UZ: With complete commitment of Supreme Leader, government and all the managers involved, Iran is in a very remarkable level in the world. About 80 percent of married couples use modern family planning methods and other 20 percent use traditional methods which should correct their methods. This is one of other potential capacity of midwifery in Iran.
TEHRAN TIMES: What must be done for improving midwifery position?
Hulki UZ: The lives and health of millions of women and children would be saved if the donor community and countries invested more in midwife training and retention. High level political commitment, both nationally and internationally is required to address the problem of the shortfall in skilled birth attendants. Education of midwives and others with midwifery competencies must be fostered if there is to be a rapid expansion and scale-up of the number of midwives and quality of midwifery care.
***** Now we are working with the Iranian ministry of health to promote an environment in which the ministry can share its experiences with other Islamic countries.
Midwifery in a society results in maternal health and maternal health means newborn's health and after that we will have a healthy society and a healthy country