Where do we go in terms of safety and quality of obstetric care in Colombia? - Revista Colombia Médica, Vol. 47, No. 1, 2016, pp. 9-10

The United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals consisted of 8 goals that are:

                    1.    to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger;

                    2.    to achieve universal primary education;

                    3.    to promote gender equality 
                           and empower women;

                    4.    to reduce child mortality;

                    5.    to improve maternal health;

                    6.    to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria,
                          and other diseases;

                    7.    to ensure environmental sustainability; and

                    8.    to develop a global partnership
                           for development.

All 189 UN member states had agreed to achieve these goals by 2015, the aimed to combat poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation and discrimination against women (WHO, 2017). After 2015, Sustainable Development Goals followed and aimed to build on MDG on a broader ambitious (WHO, 2017).  

This article looks at the how the MDG goal of reducing maternal mortality by 75 % was not met. Even though there was a visible achievement in the indicators of access to the prenatal care.  Extreme Maternal Morbidity (EMM) are serious complications that occur during pregnancy or childbirth which can lead to death. Columbia aimed to prevent maternal death and established the monitoring program of EMM.

The analysis of EMM cases that took place during 2007 to 2012 state that there is an occurrence of delay in obstetric care. This is due to factors such as either inability of recognition of the alarming symptoms by the patients, or the lack of proper medical care. The information regardless can give pointers as to what needs to be improved in the country. This also includes having an influence of education on pregnancy and its side effects on females.

EMM is a great way to analyze the obstetric care in Colombia and give pointers as to what the new model should entail under SDG. These recommendations include that the obstetric care should be based on the needs of pregnant women and not on the traditional (Pyramidal) model. It is stressed to have the model be more comprehensive, multidisciplinary and humanized. Usually, the models created look great on paper, but one seems to forget that these need to implemented and be used by humans, thus care and empathy are important parts of health care.

World Health Organization, (2017) Retrieved from:  

http://www.who.int/topics/millennium_development_goals/en/