Cambodia: More trained midwives needed to reduce maternal deaths

10 June 2009

Experts say Cambodia is badly in need of midwives in rural areas to reduce maternal mortality rate, local media reported Thursday.

Despite government efforts to deploy more midwives and skilled birth attendants in rural areas, Cambodia is still far from reaching its targeted maternal mortality rate, according to a report by the English-langauge newspaper, the Cambodia Daily.

Keth Ly Sotha, deputy director of the National Maternal Child Health Center, told a two-day forum on midwives in Phnom Penh that Cambodia currently has 3,300 trained midwives nationally, which is not enough to meet the annual 370,000 births in the country.

Quoting statistics from the Ministry of Health, Keth Ly Sotha said about 53 percent of births were attended by so-called traditional birth attendants who have little or no medical training.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), with an average of four women dieing during childbirth every day, Cambodia has the third highest maternal death rate in Southeast Asia, after Laos and East Timor.

The newspaper cited recent WHO statistics that Cambodia has suffered a critical shortage of health service providers - including doctors and midwives - with only one medically trained professional per 1,000 people, compared with three in Thailand and 10 in Japan.

UNICEF representative Richard Bridle said the government has prioritized education of midwives, but other areas also need improvement.