Audit in maternal and child health

Audit in medicine is a well tried means of assessing the quality of practice by using acceptable measures of outcome. Audit in maternal and child health has been limited to fatal outcomes such as maternal and perinatal deaths. The outcome of audit is of interest to the providers, the health authorities and the consumers. The utility of audit lies in effective use of data to improve quality of service. Quality control of instruments and education of junior staff are some other benefits of audit. The limitations of manpower, money, means, fear of litigation and above all dislike of clinicians for handling data are hurdles in the way of effective audit. The concept of 'Standard Primipara' and 'Total Fetal Wastage' are likely to add new dimension to perinatal audit.