It’s getting a little easier to be a woman in Vietnam, at least when it comes to matters of maternal health.
Two new reports by the UN and Save the Children shed light on Vietnam’s progress in improving maternal health and child nutrition.
Perhaps the most encouraging figure to come out of the UN report, titled “Trends in Mortality: 1990 to 2010,” is “76.” That’s the number of percentage points by which Vietnam has been able to reduce the maternal mortality ratio. When the UN developed the millennium development goals in 2000, one of the goals was to reduce maternal mortality by 75% by the year 2015. Vietnam has both exceeded that goal and kept ahead of the target deadline.
What’s contributed to the progress? The Save the Children State of the World’s Mothers report attributes this to a growth in community health clinics (much like the ones VNHELP runs in Nam Dinh, Da Nang and Kien Giang) and a growing cadre of “nutrition collaborators” who manage clinics and perform home visits. The presence of such clinics and health care professionals has made prenatal and neonatal care more accessible to women. Now, 88% of births in Vietnam are attended by a skilled health professional, child mortality is down by 66% and child stunting has decreased by 60%. Save the Children ranks Vietnam 20th in a list of 80 tier II “less developed” countries in its Mothers’ Index, which compares the ease of being a mother around the world. Among 43 tier I “more developed” countries, Norway tops the rankings of the best country to be a mother in.
Of course, there is still plenty of progress to be made in overall health care in Vietnam. According to Save the Children, 1 out of every 5 children in Vietnam still suffers from malnutrition. Despite its progress in the Mothers’ Index, Vietnam still ranks 61 of 83 tier II “less developed” countries in the Child Development Index . Ensuring continual progress is also an issue. While 88% of child births attended by skilled professionals is still higher than many other developing countries, progress has stalled after climbing 3% from 85% to 88% in 2006.
One thing that’s certain is that for health care in Vietnam to improve, it needs to be a continued community effort, reaching the most impoverished of women and children through accessible clinics and outreach.
Image via Creative Commons by Flickr user Lucas Jans
Tags: health, maternal health, reports, women & girls