Researchers from a University of Aberdeen initiative which is helping to identify how to reduce the toll of women dying in developing countries from pregnancy related causes are preparing to take their findings to the world’s stage.
The Immpact researchers will join leading figures from more than 75 countries in London for the three-day Women Deliver conference which is seeking to create the political will to save and improve the lives of women, mothers and newborn babies around the world.
It is estimated that every minute of every day a woman dies needlessly in pregnancy or childbirth, mostly in the developing world - a staggering half-a-million each year.
Women Deliver which begins tomorrow (October 18) marks the 20th anniversary of the Safe Motherhood Initiative launched by the World Bank together with WHO (World Health Organization) and UNFPA (United National Population Fund) to try to tackle this tragedy.
A number of researchers from Immpact - which operates in many developing countries, including Burkina Faso, Ghana and Indonesia - are presenting at key sessions.
Evaluations of different strategies for increasing access to skilled care and reducing maternal deaths in each of the three countries have been conducted by Immpact and a summary of findings will be presented at the conference by Dr Julia Hussein, who is Scientific Co-ordination Leader of Immpact. This session will also feature Dr. Sennen Hounton, a PhD candidate at the University of Aberdeen, based in Burkina Faso, who will present the Immpact evaluation findings from the work done in that country.
In her presentation, Professor Wendy Graham, Professor of Obstetric Epidemiology at the University of Aberdeen and Principal Investigator of Immpact, will make the case for removing financial barriers, especially for the poorest women, to skilled care as a key strategy for reducing maternal and perinatal mortality.
Other Immpact sessions will include presentations on which programmes have worked best to reduce pregnancy related deaths and the long term consequences of obstetric complications for women's health and lives.
Professor Graham said: "The Women Deliver conference provides a further opportunity to communicate the lessons we have learnt but this time to a political rather than technical audience. This is crucial since a significant bottleneck to progress in reducing maternal deaths is the poor uptake of evidence by policy makers on what needs to be done.
"There is no uncertainty about the action needed, and particularly the importance of removing financial barriers which prevent the poorest women from receiving life-saving care. But, sometimes evidence is communicated ambiguously – especially by researchers – and this can provide a reason or excuse for inaction.
"We want to be sure there is no uncertainty about Immpact's finding: the Millennium Development Goal for maternal mortality will not be reached by 2015 unless the obstacles preventing the poorest women for receiving emergency care are removed."