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Maternal health and well-being have extended to international consideration since the global launching of WHO’s Safe Motherhood Initiative in 1987. In 1990, Malaysia set itself an ambitious vision to achieve high income and developed status by 2020. A relatively low maternal mortality rate (23.2 in 2012), noteworthy increase in the proportion of safe deliveries and antenatal coverage have been achieved. Introduction of Confidential Enquiries into Maternal Deaths (CEMD) in 1991 was an important step towards a full-fledged audit taking into consideration the identification of shortfalls in the care of pregnant mothers and taking cognizance of the remedial measures set forth, thus improving standards of care.

The High-Risk Approach system, the introduction of a colour coding system for identification of pregnancies that were at greater risk than average risk, the strengthening of referral systems, and home based maternity assessment cards kept by the patient present at any level of antenatal care were used as additional tools.

Swift development of rural infrastructure, increase in skilled personnel to attend deliveries, and recruitment of traditional birth attendants (TBAs) as a short-gap measure was undertaken. In addition, midwives in rural areas were allowed to administer heparin as thromboprophylaxis, antenatal steroids to mothers with preterm labour and intramuscular magnesium sulphate to mothers with hypertension. These drugs are given under guidance by the Ministry of Health protocols and given before transfer to tertiary centres.

In addition, partograph use, protocol development and creation of a “red alert system” in hospitals to mobilize specialists and other healthcare personnel were deployed to reinforce existing measures. In 1985, MOH initiated a national quality assurance programme (QAP). This programme was used as a managerial tool to justify the needs for further resources in terms of money, manpower, machinery and materials.

Malaysia’s significant decline in maternal mortality has been as a result of development of rural health services (introduction of maternal and child health programmes and TBAs) , adopting specific approaches (strengthening of referral system and colour coding system), assuring quality of care by tracking progress (outcome), providing standardize care, and identifying outliers that needed further improvement.