ASMAN:Leveraging Technology To Reduce Early Maternal And Neonatal Mortality

The central goal of Alliance for Saving Mothers and Newborns (ASMAN) initiative is to reduce neonatal and maternal mortality through an innovative facility-based intervention that enables healthcare workers to provide quality care during child-birth, writes Dr. Bulbul Sood, , Country Director, Jhpiego, in conversation with Elets News Network (ENN).

The premise of the ASMAN program is that most maternal and neonatal mortality is centred around delivery (intra and the immediate postpartum period).

For example, 27% of maternal mortality is due to haemorrhage, 11% sepsis and 9% obstructed labour. 34% of neonatal death is due to infection and 19% due to birth asphyxia. us, by focusing on building healthcare workers’ capacity to provide quality of care, supported by high-impact innovations, during the intra and postpartum period, ASMAN is likely to have a signicant impact on the direct causes of maternal and neonatal mortality.

On April 30, 2015, the Government of India launched Dakshata – a national-level initiative for empowering health workers for high quality care during childbirth. Jhpiego has been involved in this initiative since its inception. It has partnered with the Government to develop the programme design, learning resource package, and other programme tools. It is the lead technical partner for the implementation of this programme in high-focus states of the country, including Rajasthan. Based on learnings from the implementation of Dakshata, in June 2017, Jhpiego decided to introduce technology as an additional driver for improved quality of care in labour rooms of public health facilities through ASMAN.