Between 1990-2016, India’s maternal mortality rate has dropped by 77% from 556 to 130 deaths per 100,000 live births. Despite these gains, however, the country still has the second highest number of maternal deaths per year globally.
Adequate and consistent delivery of clinical and patient-centered care are ongoing challenges in India. A number of accreditation bodies prescribe quality health care standards, but the majority of private health care facilities, where nearly half of mothers in India deliver, do not require adherence to the competency-based clinical care standards that have been identified as key to the prevention of maternal mortality. In addition, there are few options for private providers to improve quality.
To address disparities in quality across a mixed health care system, the Federation of Obstetric and Gynaecological Societies of India, or FOGSI, in partnership with international health non-profit Jhpiego and with financial support from MSD for Mothers and the MacArthur Foundation, launched a quality improvement certification program for private facilities called Manyata.
The stories in this series illustrate how Manyata works to ensure that women receive quality care wherever they seek care. More than just a simple checklist, at scale the program could establish a minimum standard of quality for India’s private maternal health care providers.
