Improving maternal and perinetal health

Although research in maternal and perinatal health has made significant progress in recent years, most of this progress has been driven by the needs of health systems operating in the richest countries.

This has resulted in the production of pregnancy- and childbirth-related interventions which translate poorly into low-resource settings, exacerbating the persistent gaps in women’s sexual and reproductive health conditions around the world. The paucity of research efforts targeted at conditions disproportionately affecting women in the developing- country context has simultaneously prevented the development of effective, affordable, and feasible preventive strategies that could be widely applied.

Systematic review identifies main causes of maternal mortality and morbidity

Haemorrhage and hypertensive disorders together account for the largest proportion of maternal deaths in developing countries, according to an HRP study, believed to be the first to use the systematic review approach to analyse causes of maternal mortality.

The results of the review, which was published in the British medical journal The Lancet,(1) are based on an analysis of 160 datasets, or studies, that came from a multiplicity of sources—general and specialized databases, reference lists from studies produced by a search of these databases, personal contacts with WHO country representatives, nongovernmental organizations, journal articles and vital registry data, to mention only the major sources. These sources produced 64 585 titles of reports, from which 1143 potentially usable datasets were identified and finally whittled down to the 160 that were used for the analysis.

Haemorrhage is the leading cause of maternal mortality in Africa, accounting for 34% of maternal deaths, and also in Asia, where it accounts for 31% of maternal deaths. More information

PREGENIA (Preterm Birth and Genetic International Alliances) is a consortium of 22 institutions in developed and developing countries

Research and development in maternal and newborn health have focused on the needs of health systems in the developed world. Preterm birth is a typical example: we can assure survival of most preterm babies in the developed world, yet 27% of the 4 millions newborn deaths worldwide are due to preterm delivery because research has not focused on identifying the causes of this condition.

Poster (pdf, 62 kb) - More information

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(1) Khan KS et al. WHO analysis of causes of maternal death: a systematic review. Lancet, 2006, 367:1066–1074.