Experts in mother and child health care are taking part in a two-day workshop in Yaounde.

Maternal and infant mortalities have not improved during the past years, especially in Sub Saharan Africa where close to 1,000 women out of 100,000 die in the course of child birth.

In Cameroon, despite efforts by the government and its partners, maternal mortality increased from 430/100,000 live births in 1989-1998 to 699/100,000 live births in 1998-2004. The infant mortality rate on the other hand has risen from 64.3/1000 live births in 1991 to 74.1/1000 live births in 2004. It is in this light that a two-day workshop to evaluate the use of the Maternal and Child Health Handbook, MCH, in the University Teaching Hospital (CHU) and the Biyem-Assi District Hospital, Yaounde, opened in Yaounde yesterday.

The Coordinator of the pilot project for scaling-up the use of MCH handbook in Cameroon, Grace Alake Mbambole, said for two days, the participants will evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats facing the use of the handbook and find possible solutions.

The Maternal and Child Health Handbook is a home-based tool used for following up women during pregnancies and children under five years. It contains essential information during pregnancy, child psychomotor development and nutrition, vaccination and growth records. The project has as main objective to promote the use of the handbook all over the country to contribute to the reduction of maternal and infant mortality in Cameroon.

Organised by the Ministry of Public Health, the workshop brings together heads of health facilities in the Biyem-Assi Health District.