Discharge After Delivery

According to WHO (2005), 45% of maternal deaths occur within the first 24 hours after delivery. Ensuring that, at this time, women and their newborns stay at a health facility is therefore an essential measure for reducing the prevalence of maternal mortality. This indicator measures the proportion of women that were discharged from a health facility no earlier than 24 hours after childbirth.

There are two main possibilities for collecting the required data – select the one that is best suited to the context in which your project operates.

1) Use of the health facilities’ records: If you know that the health facilities keep records on how many hours / days after the delivery were women discharged and if you trust these records, use them for calculating the indicator’s value.

2) Conduct a quantitative survey among a representative sample of women who in the past six months delivered at the target health facilities. The facilities can help you to find these women (avoid using a general survey among women of reproductive age, as it is likely to result in a very small number of respondents).

RECOMMENDED SURVEY QUESTION (Q) AND POSSIBLE ANSWER (A)

Q1: Can you please tell me how long after the delivery of your youngest child did you leave the health facility where you delivered?

A1: 

1) in less than 24 hours

2) in 24 hours or later

3) does not remember

Calculate the indicator’s value by dividing the number of women who were discharged from health facilities NOT earlier than 24 hours after childbirth by the total number of surveyed women. Multiply the result by 100.