A FULL investigation will be conducted into the country’s most recent maternal death, Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Shamdeo Persaud told Guyana Chronicle on Tuesday.

Seventeen-year-old Esther Edwards of Laluni Creek on the Linden/Soesdyke Highway died on August 1, 2017 after giving birth to a baby girl via Cesarean Section (C-Section).

In keeping with Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), the CMO said the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPHC) notified him of the maternal death on the same day. He said GPHC’s Internal Review Committee is expected to complete its report on the maternal death soon. That report is expected to be submitted soon to the CMO.

Once in receipt of the report, Dr. Persaud said the Public Health Ministry’s Experts Committee will launch a thorough investigation into the incident to determine what were the “gaps” within the system that led to the death of the pregnant teen and to make the necessary recommendations.

The teenager was admitted to the public hospital late Saturday night. At the time, she was 40 weeks pregnant.

A C-Section was performed on Edwards and while the baby girl was safely delivered, Edwards died subsequently. She died at around 3:00hrs on Emancipation Day. Hospital officials have remained tight lipped on the direct cause of her death, saying that the investigation must be completed before details of the maternal death are disclosed. To date, the country has recorded seven maternal deaths for 2017.

Earlier this year, Public Health Minister, Volda Lawrence, expressed worry over Guyana’s continued high rates of maternal and infant mortality, stating that all must get involved to reverse the trend.

“The health sector, you and I know, is faced with a myriad of challenges at all levels and in varying degrees with our maternal and infant mortality appearing high on that list; our maternal mortality rates [are] estimated at 121/100,000 live births and infant mortality rates [are] estimated at 22/1000 live births,” Lawrence pointed out.

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Pan American Health Organisation/World Health Organisation (PAHO/WHO), USAID, UNICEF and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) have stood out as major partners backing the local public health sector in the last decade, “supporting health initiatives aimed at enhancing the delivery of primary health care to our people,” Lawrence said.

In October 2016, the IDB approved an US$8 million loan for a programme to help reduce maternal, perinatal and neonatal deaths in Guyana. The five-year programme was designed to improve the quality of care at 140 health facilities and in 88 communities, benefitting at least 140,000 women and 9,000 newborns per year.

The IDB had noted that despite progress achieved during the last decade, Guyana continues to experience one of the highest maternal and infant mortality rates in Latin America and the Caribbean, with a maternal mortality rate estimated at 121 per 1,000 live births and an infant mortality rate at 22 per 1,000 live births.

Given that about 93 percent of deaths in children less than one year of age occurred in the neonatal period, the programme will support and improve maternal and child healthcare with a focus on improving access to quality neonatal health services and providing a better path to and quality of reproductive and maternal health services.

The total cost of the project is US$8 million to be financed as follows: US$4 million from the IDB’s ordinary capital resources and US$4 million from the Fund for Special Operations (FSO) of the Bank. The loan from the Bank’s ordinary capital has a six-year grace period and a 30-year term. The FSO funding has a term of 40 years with a 40-year grace period and a fixed annual rate of 0.25 percent.