This presentation was given by Jeremy Shiffman at EngenderHealth in February 2010 and covers the rise in priority of newborn survival on the global health agenda.

The Maternal Health Task Force (MHTF) held an e-forum from June 3 – June 15, 2009 with the aim of providing an opportunity for the maternal health community to offer feedback on the newly revised DHS questionnaire. This document is a summary of the comments and recommendations that arose during the e-forum.

During the Maternal Health Task Force (MHTF) e-forum there was consensus from the maternal healthcommunity that, while it is important to retain a set of key questions in the core questionnaires,developing a dedicated Maternal Health Module as an optional add-on would be very beneficial inefforts to address maternal health needs and would help fill what is seen as a lack of robust data in thefield of maternal health. The MHTF is prepared to work with DHS on the development of this module.