The number of mothers and babies dying during pregnancy and just after has declined in Gauteng, the provincial health department said yesterday.
Preliminary data for 2008 to 2011 showed the number of mothers dying during and after birth had dropped from 166 deaths per 100 000 to 144 per 100 000.
The government has set a millennium-goal target of 100 deaths per 100 000.
“The reduction in maternal deaths indicates the department is making encouraging progress,” it said.
Data for the first quarter of this year also showed a drop in the number of babies dying just before or during birth.
The mortality rate for this category fell from 33.5 per 1 000 babies last year to 28.7 per 1 000 in the first quarter of this year.
The figures were contained in a report tabled before the Gauteng legislature’s health portfolio committee.
According to the report, the number of neonatal underweight or ill babies dying dropped from 11.7 per 100 to 10.5 per 100 in the same period.
Earlier this year, five babies died within five days at Jubilee Hospital in Pretoria. The babies were allegedly not put into incubators and could not keep warm.
This was disputed by the hospital, which said post-mortems showed that the deaths were not a result of hospital mismanagement. – Sapa