Perinatal and Maternal Mortality Review Committee

The Perinatal and Maternal Mortality Review Committee (PMMRC) is an independent committee that advises the Minster of Health on how to reduce the number of deaths of babies and mothers in New Zealand.

PMMRC was established in June 2005 under sections 11 and 18 of the New Zealand Health and Disability Act 2000. The Committee met for the first time in August 2005. Read more about us.

link to workshop page.

News and Updates

Maternal Mental Health Workshop - Date 29th October Wednesday

Keeping Women Healthy: Improving the maternal mental health care in New Zealand

We invite you to attend the one-day workshop “Keeping Mothers Healthy"

Updated Leaflet: Information about the Perinatal and Maternal Mortality Review Committee (Feb 08)

Guidelines for the completion of the mother and baby forms following a perinatal death (Feb 08)

What's Happened to Baby? by skylight, Sids Wgtn & Sands Wgtn
book cover: What happened to baby?

What’s Happened to Baby? is an inviting, sensitively written and colourfully illustrated picture book for children 3 – 7 years old, who have had a baby die in their family/whānau. It has been designed with the whole family/whānau in mind, and provides a helpful opportunity for parents and caregivers to talk with a young child about this difficult loss. It also features useful notes and information for adults at the back, to assist them in supporting their bereaved child. The text has been carefully designed to fit a wide range of bereavement situations, including miscarriage, stillbirth, cot death, and accidental or natural deaths of an infant or toddler. In this way it has been developed as a book that will be able to serve and support a large number of bereaved New Zealand families. The story is simple, giving young readers clear understanding and reassuring, comforting concepts to carry with them. It also offers plenty of opportunities for adults to talk with their child/children about their own beliefs and any personal thoughts they would like to share. The illustrations, by Ali Teo, and the text combine to very effectively reflect the multi cultural nature of the New Zealand community today. Available from: www.skylight.org.nz

First Report to the Minister of Health: June 2005 to June 2007

This is the first report to the Minister of Health from this ministerial committee. PMMRC was established in 2005 to advise the minister on prevention of perinatal and maternal deaths. This report describes the setting up of the committee, the process developed to collect information about perinatal deaths and important realted issues such as post-mortems, parental support and issues for Māori.
View the First Report to the Minister of Health: June 2005 to June 2007
View the media release: First report from committee looking at deaths of mothers and babies (www.moh.govt.nz)

Confidential Enquiry into Maternal and Child Health: Improving the Health of Mothers, Babies an Children (CEMACH)
CEMACH is planning to hold a series of interactive workshops in the UK on the Maternal Death Enquiry following the launch of the 2003-05 Report in December 2007.
It is intended that these workshops will encourage participants to consider and plan ways in which they can translate findings and recommendations into practice within their area of influence. The Chair of the PMMRC will be attending one of the workshops.
Read the Confidential Enquiry into Maternal and Child Health on the CEMACH website

View full list of news and updates.

Page last updated: 20 June 2008