The recent increase in cases of deaths during childbirth or death of the mother and child before birth actualizes the problem and makes re-submit it to the public. In fact the problem is sufficiently well known in society. About the situation it has even been reported to the President.

According to the Ministry of Health in the last 20 years, the country has decreased infant mortality and for every one thousand children there are 10.8 deaths. The limit of maternal mortality has decreased to 14.9.

UNICEF Representative in Azerbaijan Mark Gerevard in a media statement said that these data do not correspond to reality. According to him, the infant mortality rate, according to UNICEF and the Ministry of Health, differs by 2.3 times. According to Mark Gerevard, this difference in numbers stems from differences in the methods of calculation. "The approach to the issue of the UN calculations of infant mortality is different from the methods used by the Ministry of Health of Azerbaijan."

The UNICEF representative said that such a situation is observed in all the former republics of the Soviet Union. The reason is that we have inherited from the Soviet era approach to the terms of " live birth ". Azerbaijan has not adopted the international standard for the birth of a living child. "For this reason, so great is the difference between the actual mortality and mortality statistics, where the data are much less, and for them there is a significant difference with the UN figures," he said.

International Health Organization has prepared maternity related protocols, which, with the assistance of Heydar Aliyev Foundatgion were brought to Azerbaijan and distributed by maternity hospitals. If distributed, how are they met? If met, for whatever reason are the cases of infant mortality rising in number?

On this issue, ANN.Az asked the Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor Adil Geybulla.

Geybulla said that there are many reasons leading to the deaths of mothers and children. "There are many factors leading to the death of the mother and child, he said. - The current statistics show that the majority of pregnancies have abnormal flows. That is, to some extent pathology is observed during pregnancy. Such statistics is significantly different from the statistics of 30-40 years ago, so the observed dynamics is towards deterioration. It should be borne in mind that a large part of the population was subjected to migration, plus a lot of refugees. Of course, another factor that generates the negative trend is the question associated with the experts in this field."

As for the protocols for clinics of the World Health Organization, the expert noted here that these protocols are the only way to reduce maternal and child mortality. "WHO has clinical protocols and templates on many issues, he said. - At a minimum, they should adhere to. As in any country of the world, in Azerbaijan there should be reports of the clinical examination of women. These protocols should reflect what should be done and was really undertaken by a woman before and after her pregnancy, how many times an ultrasound study was held in the course of the pregnancy, and what medical tests were applied. However, there are many problems with the use of these protocols. Anyway, there are certain requirements that must be observed."

Geybulla believes that one solution to this problem is its compulsory administration. "A major factor leading to the deaths of mothers and children are the problems related to professionalism, incorrect patient delivery to the wrong address, untimely elimination of problems related to pregnancy. They should be examined in a comprehensive manner and it is designed to be the basis of a series of measures to address them. Because all issues here are resolved only by administrative order, it is not possible to investigate the cause of the problem in time and take action accordingly."

According to the head of the press service of the Ministry of Health Anar Gadirli, each patient on admission to the hospital was examined on the basis of the clinical protocol. " Maternal mortality is not related to clinical protocols. This may be due to some pathological situation, or a medical mistake," added Gadirli.

Seymour Hasanli

ANN.Az