PPMD Committee

Prevent the Preventable Maternal Deaths (PPMD) is a training and retraining for doctors and nurses in the delivery units at all levels in Kerala. Established by Dr V.P. Paily for KFOG and coordinated by Dr Neetha till Feb 2025, it was a success and helped spread the message of protocol -based handling of the major causes of maternal death. For full effectiveness, it needs to be undergone by each person connected with each delivery unit / labour unit and certified compulsorily every 3 years. Attempt is being done to train at depth how to PREVENT, DIAGNOSE AND MANAGE each and every maternal complications and keep the unit in readiness and equipped, with ongoing 3 monthly drills.

Our grateful greetings to Dr Paily Sir and all the seniors who initiated and guided in PPMD, and other programs like EMOCALS and ORRT for the past 22 years. PPMD as such started with the 4 sessions of TOT done in 2022, training 206 doctors by October. By Dec 2024, a total of 772 doctors and 1937 nurses were trained.

Under the President of KFOG for 2025, Dr Suchithra Sudheer, restructuring happened as follows. Dr Presanna Kumari as the appointed Chair of Safe Motherhood Committee, under whom CRMD, PPMD and MDNMSR each had a State Coordinator. Dr Agnes Mathew is the State Coordinator for PPMD for 2025- 2028. Dr Suchitra Sudeer and Dr Subash Mallya the General Secretary have been very encouraging and supporting at every step.

Organisation of PPMD training workshops (as with government)

• RCH officers collect data of all delivery points of the district and the contact details of all the obstetricians and nurses of these delivery points.
• RCH officers organise workshops to train 50 delegates ( about 20 doctors and 30 nurses) per workshop. These are organized at different centers within the district.
• The RCH officer fixes these workshops in consultation with the contact person of the O&G society of the district. KFOG state and local coordinator for PPMD are named and announced each year.

Objective of PPMD is to reduce maternal deaths by training the team of obstetricians and nurses. This can be achieved only

• if the training is completed in all delivery points,
• if each unit is equipped with the necessary infrastructure
• if the team continues to do the drills,
• if single practitioners are helpfully connected with nearby institutions.

Hoping to achieve a MMR of one digit through all the PPMD training and Drills.