Abstract
Bangladesh has an established comprehensive death review system for tracking and reviewing maternal and perinatal deaths. This death review system, established in 2010, was initially known as the “Maternal and Perinatal Death Review (MPDR) System.” One of the key interventions of the MPDR system, social autopsy (SA), is generally undertaken following a maternal or perinatal death notification. Social autopsy is managed at the community level by government field health workers. The main purpose of SA is to enable community discussion and create awareness of the preventable causes of maternal or neonatal deaths. Through these conversations, it is hoped to reduce future maternal and neonatal deaths. During the scaling up of the system in Bangladesh in 2016, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoH&FW) included social autopsy as a useful intervention in reviewing death at the community level and named it “Maternal and Perinatal Death Surveillance and Response” (MPDSR). The new MPDSR tool is currently being administered for the the 2017 to 2021 period under the National Health and Nutrition Population Sector Program (HPNSP). This paper seeks to review the experiences of the social autopsy tool, from the initial MPDR system to the current MPDSR system and its role in reducing maternal and neonatal deaths in Bangladesh.
Highlights
Social autopsy (SA) is an innovative tool, used worldwide, to determine the salient social determinants of death
There is much scientific research describing the remarkable achievements of SA in diminishing maternal and neonatal deaths, including stillbirths, in many low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) [1–3]
SA has been incorporated in the Maternal and Perinatal Death Surveillance and Response” (MPDSR) system as one of the key strategies to address avoidable maternal and neonatal deaths and thereby contribute to Bangladesh achievement of the 2030 Sustainable Developmental Goals (SDG): (3) to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages, targets (3.1) to reduce maternal mortality, and (3.2) to end preventable deaths of newborns [11]
Summary
Social autopsy (SA) is an innovative tool, used worldwide, to determine the salient social determinants of death. When the government frontline health workers receive notification of a mother or newborn death, they conduct a verbal autopsy followed by SA [4]. In Maternal and Perinatal Death Surveillance and Response (MPDSR), SA is generally conducted following the completion of verbal autopsy and death review of a mother or neonate.
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