Page 33 - IJPS-5-1

International Journal of Population Studies

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Maternal mortality and fertility in

Myanmar: State of the art

Myint Myint Wai *, Espen Bjertness , Thein Thein Htay ,
2
1
1,2
Tippawan Liabsuetrakul , Johanne Sundby 2
3
1 Ministry of Health and Sports, Myanmar
2 Department of Community Medicine and Global Health, University of Oslo, Norway
3 Epidemiology Unit, Faculty of Medicine, Prince of Songkla University, Thailand
Abstract: Many women in developing countries are dying from preventable causes related
to pregnancy and childbirth. These maternal deaths are attributed to the poor coverage of
reproductive health services and high fertility levels. A holistic review of the reproductive health
is necessary to reflect the country’s situation and progress of reproductive health and provide
recommendations for areas that need an improvement. The aim of this paper is to provide an
overview of the historic development of maternal mortality and fertility in Myanmar during the
past 25 years, focusing on the antenatal care (ANC) coverage, deliveries attended by skilled
ARTICLE INFO
persons, and contraceptive use. All published nationally representative data were compiled, and
Received: October 12, 2018 trend analysis was performed. The maternal mortality ratio declined significantly by 9.1 (95%CI:
Accepted: June 19, 2019 4.0-14.1) maternal deaths per 100,000 live births/year between 1990 and 2015, but it failed to
Published: July 5, 2019 achieve the target of Millennium Development Goals 5. There was no significant improvement
*CORRESPONDING AUTHOR in ANC coverage and care during delivery. Contraceptive use increased significantly, leading to
a reduction in the total fertility rate. Nevertheless, overall reproductive health failed to reach a
Myint Myint Wai, satisfactory level. Maternal mortality still remains high. Thus, there is a need to improve service
Department of Medical coverage and more so in the regions with poor performance to reduce the high maternal mortality.
Services, Ministry of Health
and Sports, NayPyiTaw, Keywords: Maternal mortality ratio; Total fertility rate; Reproductive health services;
Myanmar.
m.m.wai@medisin.uio.no, Millennium Development Goals; Myanmar; Antenatal care; Skilled birth attendants
mmwai2011@gmail.com
1. Introduction
CITATION
Wai M M, Htay T T, Maternal mortality is considered as an indicator representing the status of women in
Liabsuetrakul T, Bjertness E, society and the overall health of the population and also reflects the functioning of the
Sundby J (2019). Maternal health system (World Health Organization [WHO], 2006). The most common indicator
mortality and fertility in used to measure maternal mortality is the maternal mortality ratio (MMR); the number
Myanmar: State of the art.
International Journal of of maternal deaths per 100,000 live births (WHO, 2006). Total fertility rate (TFR) is an
Population Studies, 5(1):27-37. important demographic indicator closely associated with maternal mortality (WHO, 2006),
doi: 10.18063/ijps.v5i1.1029 as high levels of fertility increase the lifetime risk of dying from maternal causes (WHO,
Copyright: © 2019 Wai M M, 2015a). TFR refers to the average number of births a woman would have if she lives all
Htay T T, Liabsuetrakul T, her reproductive years; age 15-50 (WHO, 2006). TFR is a good summary measure for
Bjertness E and Sundby J. comparison between countries, population subgroups, or trends over time (WHO, 2006).
This is an Open-Access article Globally, many women die from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth
distributed under the terms (WHO, 2018a). Majority of these maternal deaths occur in developing countries, and
of the Creative Commons
Attribution-Non Commercial about one-third of global maternal deaths are in the Southern Asia region (WHO, 2018a).
4.0 International License Global movements to combat high maternal mortality in developing countries were
(http://creativecommons.org/ formally established at the time of launching of the safe motherhood initiatives in the
licenses/by-nc/4.0/), permitting 1980s (AbouZahr, 2003). The program of action adopted at the International Conference
all noncommercial use, on Population and Development (ICPD) in 1994 reinforced safe motherhood activities
distribution, and reproduction
in any medium, provided the to promote the women’s health (United Nations Population Fund [UNFPA], 2014).
original work is properly cited. Reduction of maternal mortality was also stipulated in the Millennium Development

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