It’s time for reflection on the first Global Maternal Health Conference held in Delhi 30th August to 1st September. The conference organizers are finishing uploading all the presentations, videos and photos; wrapping up the finances; and taking stock of how the conference may have added value to the accelerating maternal health movement.
Participants in the conference, both those who were there in-person and those who attended virtually via the live-stream and blogs, will soon be sent a survey designed to gather candid feedback on everything from the conference logistics to the presentations. We urge you to give some careful thought to that survey and return it promptly. Your responses will be compiled and analyzed to determine how or if the next global maternal health conference convenes.
Dr. Ann K. Blanc, the Director of the Maternal Health Task Force, is in the process of reviewing all the presentations that were given in plenaries, parallel sessions, panels and posters. Her review coupled with informal conversations she had during and after the conference will comprise a summary of the conference proceedings, highlighting new findings and new directions that maternal health experts worldwide are pursuing.
Meanwhile, we continue to welcome your blog posts and comments on the conference. You can also take a look at all the presentations that are uploaded here.
Stay tuned for Ann’s review… it promises to be fascinating!
Email your comments, questions, or blog posts on the GMHC 2010 to Raji at rmohanam@engenderhealth.org
Posts Tagged ‘Maternal Health Task Force’
GMHC 2010 Follow-Up: What to expect next
Tuesday, September 21st, 2010 by Raji Mohanam
Going Digital: Taking the Maternal Health Community Online
Wednesday, September 15th, 2010 by Raji Mohanam
Written by: Janna Oberdorf, Communications Manager for Women Deliver
The Global Maternal Health Conference has ended – and ended with a bang. The “Maternal Health Digital” panel closed the conference with exciting, new, and innovative ways for using technology for global health and maternal health issues. Advances in tools for cross-media storytelling, social networking, digital games, real-time messaging, and mobile and location-aware technologies are being adapted to fit the needs of the maternal health community—and are helping to fuel the increased momentum around the issue.
Here are some of the highlights, but watch the full session to get all the details:
- Subhi Quraishi at ZMQ Software Systems talked about using mobile gaming for edutainment, for awareness-raising, and for care support and treatment. Many of us know about using mobile technology for health information, i.e. setting an SMS alert for prenatal and postnatal care for rural women that says, “ultrasound test due” or “time for your child’s polio vaccine.” But ZMQ has launched programs that teach women about their health through games and entertainment. They also have projects in the works that target one woman with a mobile phone and offer her microfinance opportunities if she shares the information with a network of women in her community.
- Kinga Jelinska spoke about her project, www.womenonweb.org, a telemedical non-profit service helping women access Mifepristone and Misoprostol in countries with restrictive access to safe abortion. Though Jelinska talked about the need to offer safe medical abortion services to women around the world, many audience members had questions about her project – How can you determine gestation period? How do you ensure a woman who has complications receives care? How can women in low-resource settings afford the expensive medicine? Visit her website to learn more about the project.
- Kiran Bapna, from Google, talked about the brand-new launch of Health Speaks. Combining the power of local expertise with efficient online tools like the Google Translator Toolkit, Health Speaks aims to efficiently increase the amount of quality health information available online in local languages by out-sourcing (or crowd sourcing) it to volunteers.
Many new online tools, like Google’s Health Speaks, rely on the power of volunteers and their knowledge. This trust is something that is hard for many professional health experts to believe in – yet it opens so many doors to innovative ideas. During mini-presentations, others talked about the power of putting technology into the hands of the people in the field through: online reporting (Pulitzer Center’s Dying for Life); crowd-sourcing through online survey and discussion forums for midwives, nurses, and doctors (Global Voices); and interactive mapping of maternal health organizations (Maternal Health Task Force).
Though it may be difficult for researchers and experts to hand the reins of collecting and disseminating information to those in cyberspace – this is the future of maternal health. We have to have some level of trust in our cyber advocates and activists, but still maintain a watchful eye on their outputs and inputs.
Clean Birth Kits: Do We Need Them?
Tuesday, August 31st, 2010 by Raji MohanamWritten by Janna Oberdorf, Women Deliver
Clean Birth Kits. It seems like a no-brainer. And, as one audience member at the Global Maternal Health Conference said, “There’s no doubt these would work.”
But, there is doubt, as I learned at today’s session, “Clean birth kits: do we need them?”. There’s serious speculation on what impact and effect clean birth kits (CBKs) would have on saving lives. The session panelists presented a review of the existing evidence on clean birth practices and the potential role for CBKs in supporting these preventive practices, and they found serious gaps in knowledge and research.
One thing that all panelists agreed on is that clean births are necessary to reduce maternal mortality – each year around 1 million newborns and mothers die from infections soon after birth, and this burden is highest for the poorest families. Of the world’s 60 million home births each year, many occur without adequate hygiene, and some facility births also lack basic hygienic care. There are “six cleans” that make up a clean birth: clean hands, clean perineum, clean delivery surface, clean cord cutting implement, clean cord tying, and clean cord care.
But CBKs are not a new idea. They have been around for decades… centuries. The problem is that little research exists that shows how these kits are used, and more importantly, what effect they have on women and providers.
Wendy J. Graham, from Immpact and University of Aberdeen, used this panel to discuss the Birth Kit Working Group, a compilation of health experts who are assessing existing research on CBKs, and considering the development of a decision guide to assist in the planning of overall strategies relating to the use of CBKs. Their key focus has been on CBKs for use in facilities, and trying to determine whether these kits are a help or a hindrance.
“The fact is: We don’t know,” said Graham, who highlighted the gaps in knowledge and research around CBKs effects. “We’ve heard so much about poor quality of care, and we need to identify catalysts for change.”
Though, as Graham and her colleagues Bilal Avan and Vanora Hundley discussed, the CBKs could work as a catalyst for change in a positive way, or a negative way. The presenters and the participants had a heated debate on how the kits could be distributed: would it be more effective if they are housed at health facilities and used when pregnant women arrive for delivery, or should they be given to pregnant women at antenatal visits. Giving women CBKs might actually deter them from having facility births, thinking that they can use the kit at home. Or, it might empower and enable them to return to the facility for their birth. On the other hand, housing the kits at facilities might create dependence from health providers that would be problematic when supplies run out. Or, the kits could sit on a shelf and never be used.
“This is not black or white; not positive or negative,” said Graham. “It depends on where we’re talking about. And it’s hard to really find out about adverse effects when studies don’t talk about failures.”
In the a community that likes to so often stress, “There’s no magic bullet for maternal health,” the CBKs offer the possible potential of what the bed net has done to curb malaria. Moderator, Ann Starrs of Family Care International, put the CBK issues into a broader global advocacy perspective. “Kits are being looked at and promoted almost as an advocacy tool, and as a way to sell this issue to a broad range of audiences as a problem for which there are quick and easy solutions,” said Starrs.
The main takeaway seems to be clean births are essential, and there is serious potential for CBKs to have an impact on maternal health and maternal mortality. The problem is: We have no idea what that impact will be. And before we roll out (and massively fund) the creation of distribution of CBKs, we need to be clear on what the likely outcomes will be.
MORE QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER:
1. What are the most important contextual factors to consider regarding introducing CBKs into facilities? How do we address equity and ensure that poor women and women most in-need receive them?
2. What should a kit include? What’s the criteria?
3. What are the potential uses for CBKs, specifically in conflict or disaster situations?
4. Are birth kits just an expensive diversion? Read a post on this issue by Ann Blanc, Director of the Maternal Health Task Force.
Stay up to date with the conference happenings! Follow the Maternal Health Task Force and EngenderHealth on Twitter: @MHTF and @EngenderHealth. The conference hashtag is #GMHC2010.
For more posts about the Global Maternal Health Conference, click here.
For the live stream schedule, click here.
Check back soon for the archived videos of today’s presentations.
Global Bloggers Gear Up for the First Day of the Global Maternal Health Conference in Delhi!
Saturday, August 28th, 2010 by KateMitchThis Monday marks the start of the first ever Global Maternal Health Conference. The conference is being held in Delhi, India–and will focus on lessons learned, neglected issues, and innovative approaches to reducing maternal mortality and morbidity.
The organizers of the conference, the Maternal Health Task Force at EngenderHealth and the Public Health Foundation of India, are looking forward to a lively online discussion around the happenings of the conference. We have linked up with global health and development professionals around the world to form a team of global bloggers who will share their reactions to the conference sessions–and fuel a robust online dialogue.
Our guest bloggers hail from a number of international health, development, and media institutions including the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Global Health Initiative, Women Deliver, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Centre for Health Policy and Innovation, Earth Sciences University of Cambridge, the Population Council, Gender Across Borders, the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, and more.
Stay tuned to the MHTF Blog for up-to-date reactions and analysis of the conference sessions.
For information on the live streaming of the conference, click here.
Join the conversation! Follow the MHTF and EngenderHealth on Twitter: @MHTF and @EngenderHealth.
Young Champions to Present at the GMHC2010: The Next Generation of Maternal Health Solutions
Friday, August 20th, 2010 by ablancAshoka and the Maternal Health Task Force at EngenderHealth together have launched an innovative program to foster a new cadre of maternal health professionals. The Young Champions of Maternal Health program is the first-ever international fellowship to focus on creating the next generation of global leaders dedicated to improving maternal health. The Young Champions, selected through Ashoka’s Changemakers.com online competition and a rigorous interview process, will spend nine months abroad working with and being mentored by an Ashoka Fellow with expertise in maternal health. The Young Champions hail from 13 countries, the majority in the developing world.
In parallel with the Global Maternal Health Conference 2010, the Young Champions are gathering for their Change Summit, which inaugurates their fellowships. In addition to special orientation sessions at the Change Summit, they will participate in the conference to learn from and network with maternal health experts.
Some of the Young Champions will present their work at a panel session: The next generation of maternal health solutions, on Tuesday, August 31st, 15:30 – 17:15 in Stein Auditorium. Tune in here on August 31st for the live stream.
From Delhi, the Young Champions will travel directly to their Ashoka Fellows’ host sites to begin their work, which they will share through blog and video posts on the MHTF and Ashoka websites.
Details about each Young Champion’s project and their photos are available at www.ashoka.org/youngchampions.
To find out about other sessions that will be live streamed, click here.
Do you follow the MHTF (@MHTF) on Twitter? The conference hashtag is #GMHC2010.
Maternal Health Digital: Exploring Digital Tools for Maternal Health
Thursday, August 19th, 2010 by KateMitch
The upcoming Global Maternal Health Conference in Delhi (August 30th-September 1st) will focus on lessons learned, neglected issues, and innovative approaches to reducing maternal mortality and morbidity. The anticipated outcome of the conference is increased consensus around the evidence, programs and advocacy needed to reduce preventable maternal mortality and morbidity.
One session, Maternal Health Digital, will showcase a number of digital communication tools being applied to maternal health. Matthew Meschery, Director of Digital Initiatives at the Independent Television Service, will moderate the session—and will guide panelists and participants through a lively discussion that will explore the potential of digital tools to improve the health of women around the world. Panelists will also address questions about how to measure the impact of such projects.
Throughout the session, conference participants will learn about an email help desk that is aiming to increase access to misoprostol and mifepristine, a mobile phone and radio initiative that is aiming to improve delivery of maternal and neonatal health services, an online media “mash-up” tool that is enabling users to make their own advocacy videos, a crowd-sourcing project that is tapping into the knowledge of front-line maternal health care providers in 9 languages, and more.
This exciting session will include presentations from Google.org, Women on Web, ZMQ Software Systems, Health Child, MDGFive.com, the Social Media Research Foundation, the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, University of Oxford, the Maternal Health Task Force, and the Independent Television Service.
Take a look at the session summary:
In recent years, the health, technology, and communication sectors have come together to innovate health communications through the use of digital media. Advances in tools for cross-media storytelling, social networking, digital games, real-time messaging, and mobile and location-aware technologies are being adapted to fit the needs of the maternal health community—and are helping to fuel the increased momentum around the issue. In this interactive session, conference participants will learn about a diverse range of innovative projects that are aiming to identify challenges and solutions for providing care to pregnant women, build stronger connections among maternal health organizations, create new ways to collect and use data, foster increased collaboration through engaging communities, and continue to drive attention toward the issue. As well as highlighting the promise of these new tools, we will also look at some specific challenges such as measuring impact, working in areas with limited connectivity, and merging online and offline strategies. There will be a series of mini-presentations on crowd-sourcing, interactive mapping, a media mash-up tool, an online reporting hub, mobile health campaigns, and more. Participants will not only get an over-view of a wide variety of strategies and recent developments in digital health communications—but they will also learn tips for applying many of these new tools to their own work and engage in a dialogue around how to maximize the utility of these technologies in order to significantly improve the health of women around the world.
This session will be live streamed. Click here for the live stream schedule.
Do you follow the MHTF (@MHTF) on Twitter? The conference hashtag is #GMHC2010. The hashtag for this session is #GMHC2010Digital.
Exciting Plans Underway: Young Champions of Maternal Health Change Summit to be Held in Delhi!
Thursday, August 5th, 2010 by Christopher LindahlLater this month, Ashoka and the Maternal Health Task Force will host the Young Champions of Maternal Health Change Summit in Delhi, India. The Change Summit will take place between August 29th and September 6th—and is being held in conjunction with the Global Maternal Health Conference 2010.
The several-day event will bring together the Young Champions of Maternal Health (marking the beginning of their 9-month fellowships), the Changemakers prize winners, the Maternal Health Blog Contest winner, Ashoka Fellows, and numerous maternal health experts from around the world. The Young Champions will engage in a number of networking activities and training sessions.
Summit highlights:
- Training through case-studies in innovation and problem solving for maternal health
- Training in “Telling Your Story” with traditional and social media
- Networking lunch to introduce the Young Champions to leading experts in maternal health
- Site visit to local maternal health projects in nearby communities
The Young Champions will also be attending sessions at the Global Maternal Health Conference—as well as presenting on a panel at the conference where they will share their winning innovative ideas for improving maternal health in communities around the world. Their panel presentation will take place on August 31st from 15:30 to 17:15 (Delhi time) and will be live-streamed.
Stay tuned for blog posts from the Young Champions of Maternal Health as they embark on this journey to hone their skills in health innovation and develop the next generation of ideas for improving global maternal health!
The Global Maternal Health Conference 2010 Site is Live!
Wednesday, August 4th, 2010 by Raji MohanamThe Maternal Health Task Force is delighted to announce that the Global Maternal Health Conference 2010 website is now live! The conference is taking place in Delhi, India on August 30th, 31st and September 1st–and is being held in collaboration with the Public Health Foundation of India. Click here to visit the site and explore the exciting conference program! You will find information on the schedule, speakers, sessions, and plenaries. Once the conference begins, the conference site will also house conference presentations, photos and videos–as well as an interactive discussion forum. In addition, all plenary presentations and selected sessions will be live-streamed and free to access on the conference site. Check back soon for the live-streaming schedule!
**Please note that we are still making minor adjustments to the conference program, so conference session titles as well as scheduled day and time slots may change.**
The Maternal Health Task Announces New Grants, Innovative Maternal Health Projects to Inform National Policies
Thursday, July 22nd, 2010 by KateMitch
NEW YORK, July 22—The Maternal Health Task Force at EngenderHealth announced today that it has awarded eight new grants supporting innovative maternal health projects across Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The projects, which will be carried out by local organizations in developing countries, will lead to national policy recommendations for improving maternal health.
Each project will evaluate an ongoing effort to advance maternal health in places where too many women still die from preventable complications of pregnancy and childbirth. Examples of such projects include integrating maternal health care with HIV prevention and treatment, organizing support groups for pregnant mothers, and outfitting health workers in rural communities with cellular phones to facilitate emergency care for pregnant women. Following are summaries of the new grants:
In Bangladesh, scientists and nonscientists will collaborate at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research in Bangladesh (ICDDR,B) in translating new and existing knowledge about maternal health into proposals to improve government policies and practices. They will seek consensus on identifying key questions raised by three recent research programs, ensure access to the findings, reach out to national policymakers, and build ICDDR,B capacity and visibility for future work in knowledge translation.
In India, the Centre for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA) will combat India’s high maternal mortality and morbidity rates by demonstrating the value of integrating maternal health programs into HIV and AIDS programs. Using forums, workshops, and consultations, CEDPA will evaluate existing programs of the government’s National Rural Health Mission, the National AIDS Control Programme, and the National Health Policy Administration in the Rajasthan area, to compile best practices and build consensus on a set of recommendations for policymakers.
In Malawi, the MaiMwana project will be a pilot effort to strengthen the current inadequate Maternal Death Review (MDR) system with a village-level program of maternal death audits. Kamuzu Central Hospital and the Mchinji District Hospital will support the formation of three-member MDR teams in each village to conduct a verbal autopsy (a structured interview) among relatives and neighbors within two days of every maternal death. Improved data will allow better analysis and service improvements and will contribute to recommendations to the Ministry of Health for a national audit procedure.
In Mexico, the Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropologia Social (CIESAS) is conducting an assessment of the Ministry of Health’s Advanced Life Support for Obstetrics Program (ALSO), which manages delivery emergencies in Oaxaca. CIESAS will determine whether ALSO courses improve the technical skills and professional morale of health care providers enough to justify expanding the program nationwide.
In Peru, Future Generations, in partnership with the Peruvian Ministry of Health, will field test promising methods of reducing maternal and newborn mortality by organizing groups of pregnant women to share their pregnancy histories and experiences. In a controlled trial involving 500 pregnant women, health workers will guide the discussions, document benefits, develop a training manual and materials for possible nationwide use, hold workshops on the materials, and advocate for policy change.
In South Africa and Kenya, the mothers2mothers program, which offers education and emotional support to pregnant women and new mothers living with HIV, will field test “active client follow-up” to increase the number of HIV-positive pregnant women who return to a health care facility for care after an initial visit. In much of Africa, the return rate is low, posing a major obstacle to preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Mothers2mothers will use peer “mentor mothers” to send text messages or cell phone calls to previously contacted pregnant women to urge them to make return visits. Best practices will be collected for integration into the mothers2mothers standard model used continent-wide.
In Sri Lanka, the Department of Community Medicine at Rajarata University will work to improve the collection of data on the impact of maternal death and postpartum illness, a process that is now limited to hospital reports. University researchers will develop a survey questionnaire for field testing among a sample of expectant mothers in the resource-poor Anuradhapura District, where maternal mortality rates are high. Researchers will analyze the frequency and prevalence of health events and their direct and indirect economic impacts on families, to contribute to national service delivery planning.
In Tanzania, the Ifakara Health Institute (IHI) will seek to improve emergency care for pregnant women and newborns by providing free cellular phones and business-related services for mid-level health care providers, to allow better communication with distant emergency obstetric specialists. Cooperating with district councils and a local telecommunications company IHI will evaluate the cost, feasibility, and implementation issues that arise if health workers at the district level have better access to long-distance counseling, faster referrals and resupply services, and emergency clinical support.
EngenderHealth is a leading international reproductive health organization working to improve the quality of health care in the world’s poorest communities. EngenderHealth empowers people to make informed choices about contraception, trains health care providers to make motherhood safer, promotes gender equity, enhances the quality of HIV and AIDS services, and advocates for positive policy change. The nonprofit organization works in partnership with governments, institutions, communities, and health care professionals in more than 20 countries around the world. For more information, visit www.engenderhealth.org.
The Maternal Health Task Force at EngenderHealth brings together existing maternal health initiatives and engages new organizations to facilitate global coordination of maternal health evidence, programs, and policies. Supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Maternal Health Task Force convenes stakeholders and creates an inclusive setting to engage in dialogue, build consensus, foster innovation, and share information. For more information, visit www.maternalhealthtaskforce.org.
Contact:
Tim Thomas, Maternal Health Task Force/EngenderHealth
646-436-6555, tthomas@engenderhealth.org
International, National, Expert, and Young Champions of Maternal Health Speak at the GMHC2010 Inaugural Ceremony
Monday, August 30th, 2010 by Christopher LindahlWritten by Kate Mitchell, Maternal Health Task Force
Today (August 30, 2010) marked the first day of the Global Maternal Health Conference in Delhi. Throughout the day, the nearly 700 conference participants–made up of maternal health researchers, programmers, advocates, social entrepreneurs, policymakers, and young professionals–shared a number of insights, lessons learned, recommendations and innovative ideas for improving the health of women around the world.
Brief insights from the Inaugural Ceremony speeches:
Ann Blanc, Director of the Maternal Health Task Force, welcomed conference participants—and set an exciting tone for the conference as a forum for sharing knowledge and building bridges with colleagues within and beyond the maternal health field. She also expressed excitement at the high level of interest in this conference—noting the interest as an indicator of momentum around Millennium Development Goal Five.
Ashok Alexander, Director of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Avahan India AIDS Initiative, declared that the foundation continues to make major commitments to maternal, newborn, and child health programs. He explained that maternal health projects should focus on the continuum of care, foster collaboration between related fields, fuel the development of new tools and technologies, and advocate for policies that are conducive to the scale up of these projects.
Hellen Kotlolo, Young Champion of Maternal Health, commented on the future of maternal health; calling on experienced maternal health professionals to nurture the fresh ideas and energy of young professionals. She asked maternal health experts to share their knowledge and experience with the next generation.
Srinath Reddy, President of the Public Health Foundation of India, explained that India, a country with rapid development across many sectors, still faces many challenges in reducing maternal mortality. To bring about significant change, he said, India will need more interdisciplinary research, more efficient and equitable health systems, more political will, and communities that are more empowered.
Gita Sen, Professor of Public Policy at the India Institute of Management, described the field of maternal health as being on a roller-coaster for over 4 decades–with ups and downs in strategy, focus, and funding. She said that now is not the first time that maternal health has been in the limelight—but that we must get it right this time; we cannot afford to get it wrong this time.
Gita Sen also told conference participants about a story printed in the Hindustan Times today; a woman gave birth on the street outside of a popular shopping mall here in Delhi—and shortly later died right there on the street as crowds continued on with their days. Gita asked, “Who speaks for this woman’s rights?” (Read the story: She gave birth, died. Delhi walked by.)
Montek Singh Ahluhalia, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commision for India, said that the states in India with the best maternal mortality ratios are already on track to meet maternal health goals—but that the states in the north are lagging seriously behind. He said that a lot of the money that is spent on health is not buying the health outcomes it could—and expressed a need for wider access to public facilities for the poorest 60%.
Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare of India, outlined the state of maternal health in India, citing many successes and talking specifically about the Janani Suraksha Yojana program. He said that ten million pregnant women in India have now been reached by JSY—and noted that some small countries have a total population of ten million! Azad announced plans to reposition family planning programs within the context of maternal and child health and not limit the scope of services to population goals. The Health Minister also officially inaugurated the conference.
For more brief insights from our conference presenters, follow the Maternal Health Task Force and EngenderHealth on Twitter: @MHTF and @EngenderHealth. The conference hashtag is #GMHC2010.
For more posts about the Global Maternal Health Conference, click here.
For the live stream schedule, click here.
Check back soon for the archived videos of today’s presentations.
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Tags: advocates, Ann Blanc, Ashok Alexander, Avahan India AIDS Initiative, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, continuum of care, Delhi, EngenderHealth, Gita Sen, Global Maternal Health Conference 2010, Health Minister, Hellen Kotlolo, Hindustan Times, Inaugural Ceremony, India, India Institute of Management, innovative ideas, insights, Janani Suraksha Yojana, JSY, live-stream, maternal health researchers, Maternal Health Task Force, maternal mortality, MDG5, MHTF, Millennium Development Goal Five, Montek Singh Ahluhalia, newborn health, policymakers, programmers, Public Health Foundation of India, Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad, social entrepreneurs, Srinath Reddy, Young Champions of Maternal Health
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