- Name
- Births attended by trained personnel
- Indicator purpose
- Births attended by skilled health personnel is an indicator of health care utilization.
- Abstract
- Percentage of births attended by skilled health personnel (generally doctors, nurses or midwives) is the percentage of deliveries attended by health personnel trained in providing lifesaving obstetric care, including giving the necessary supervision, care and advice to women during pregnancy, labour and the post-partum period, conducting deliveries on their own, and caring for new-borns. Traditional birth attendants, even if they receive a short training course, are not included.
- Contact organization / person
- Ministry of Health (MOH)
- Unit of measure
- Percentage (%)
- Other characteristics
- Having a skilled attendant at the time of delivery is an important lifesaving intervention for both mothers and babies. Not having access to this key assistance is detrimental to women's health and gender empowerment because it could cause the death of the mother or long-lasting disability, especially in marginalized settings.
- Classification used
- Skilled birth attendants are generally accredited health professional trained in providing lifesaving obstetric care, including giving the necessary supervision, care and advice to women during pregnancy, labour and the post-partum period, conducting deliveries on their own, and caring for new-borns. The current definition is under revision by UNICEF, WHO and UNFPA. The revised definition will center around the competencies and enabling environment the skilled birth attendance should have in order to provide safe services to the mother and new-born.
- Disaggregation
- For this indicator, when data are reported from household surveys, disaggregation is available for residence (urban/rural), household wealth (quintiles) and maternal age, geographic regions. When data are reported from administrative sources, disaggregation is more limited and tend to include only residence.
- Key statistical concepts
- The number of women aged 15-49 with a live birth attended by a skilled health personnel (doctors, nurses or midwives) during delivery is expressed as a percentage of women aged 15-49 with a live birth in the same period.
- Recommended uses
- This indicator can be used to assist the Ministry of Health in providing adequate coverage for deliveries; close the gap between international standards and the competencies of existing birth attendants who are able to correctly manage common obstetric and neonatal complications.
- Other comments
- All the metadata shown was gathered from United Nation Statistics Division. The metadata was extracted from https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/metadata/.
