Countdown to 2030 is participating in the AlignMNH Collective’s virtual opening forum on April 20-21, an event that the aims to foster solutions-focused discussion and promote the sharing of evidence, knowledge, and experiences in the promotion of global maternal and newborn health. With less than 10 years remaining to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, urgent, collective action is needed to meet targets for maternal and newborn health (MNH) and prevention of stillbirths.
“Align MNH and related initiatives focus on the most dangerous 48 hours of life: the hours of labour and the day of birth when nearly half of all maternal deaths and 40% of all stillbirths and neonatal deaths occur,” said Dr. Ties Boerma, project director for Countdown, in a plenary session today. “Surely, as societies, we can guarantee 48 hours of good quality care to welcome each newborn to the world. This means every woman and every baby need to receive high quality routine and emergency delivery care, with quality antenatal and postnatal care. As the video and the accompanying Countdown report show, use of antenatal, delivery and postnatal services is increasing almost everywhere but the poorest are still left behind. And the positive coverage trends are no guarantee for good quality care for all. There is much room for improvement of the quality of care during pregnancy, delivery and during postnatal visits.”
Countdown synthesized current data around maternal and newborn health and stillbirths to present in the opening video and this brief report. Countdown consortium members Dr. Ties Boerma, Ms. Mary Kinney, Dr. Sudha Sharma, and Dr. Shams El Arifeen are participating in the forum’s discussions.