Madagascar traditional midwives recruited to bring women in labor to clinics for care

IRIN examines efforts to recruit Madagascar's traditional midwives, called "matronnes," to "a campaign to get women to deliver in clinics or hospitals, part of a move to lower maternal and newborn death rates." The country, which has the highest adolescent fertility rate in Africa, has a "moderately high" maternal mortality ratio, despite having "dropped from 710 deaths per 100,000 live births in 1990 to 240 per 100,000 live births in 2010," the news service notes. IRIN describes how health centers and non-governmental organizations are working to provide better maternal and newborn health care by convincing traditional midwives to accompany women in labor to clinics, where skilled birth attendants can attend to them (12/12).