The Department of Health is taking urgent steps to tackle the problem of mothers bleeding to death from Caesarean sections. In the latest South African Medical Journal Dr Yogan Pillay, the deputy director-general of strategic health programmes in the department, described the deaths as "scandalous and a disgrace".According to figures in the medical journal, there had been a 63% increase in deaths from C-sections between 2008 and 2014. I n 71% of instances the deaths could have been avoided, experts said.The Department of Health has devised a number of interventions since the National Committee on Confidential Enquiries into Maternal Deaths raised the alarm.Key interventions include the centralisation of obstetric skills to a handful of district hospitals, urgently briefing district healthcare chiefs and ensuring that they have sufficient blood supplies.According to the report in the journal, "safe C-section care" has already been centralised in the Free State and this has "dramatically improved results over 12 months".Pillay added that provinces had been instructed to dedicate ambulances for the transport of pregnant women and sick infants.The lack of skills among doctors and a shortage of resources, especially in rural hospitals, have been blamed for the large number of mothers bleeding to death.Surgical skills were described as "insufficient", according to the journal's report, with anaesthetists also being cited as a problem.Doctors' theatre notes on Caesarean deliveries were "frequently of such poor quality" that it was not possible to determine the volume of blood lost or the reasons for the loss. Peter de Jong, a consulting gynaecologist at Groote Schuur Hospital and the University of Cape Town, welcomed the interventions."We need to prioritise maternal health issues - each mother that dies is a tragedy, and is also a setback for women's rights," said De Jong...