Child Death Review

One of the prime objectives of NHM is to reduce the Infant Mortality Rate (MR). Various attempts are being made to reduce Infant Mortality by improving the quality of child health care delivery through strengthening Facility Based Newborn Care Units, introducing a Home-Based Newborn Care Programmes, and stepping up monitoring.

However, it has been felt that prompt reporting and review of child deaths (0-59 months) can provide insight into:

Identify the bottlenecks in the delivery of maternal and child health services by investigating and recording the sequence of events leading to child deaths and drawing inferences from the data generated locally.

The analysis would guide the program managers at all levels to recognize the key gap areas for service delivery and institute corrective measures.

Data on causes of neonatal and child deaths are also useful for health planners, administrators, and medical professionals to evaluate trends in causes of mortality over time and thus assess the impact of the ongoing health programs and make a decision on the allocation of resources for different strategies to prevent and manage neonatal and childhood illnesses.

Key Steps in Child Death Review

All deaths among children in the age group 0-59 months will be reviewed and reported irrespective of the place it takes place: at home, in a health facility, or in transit.

The review processes will remain the same for all children; however, the details to be investigated will vary in neonates (0-28 days) and children (29 days-59 months).

Child Death Review is being done at two levels:

Community-level

Facility level