Networking Day 2
Innovative Solutions to Advance Maternal & Newborn Health and Engage Stakeholders for Policy and Action | PMNCH
As we learn about the aftermath of COVID-19 and the disruptions to essential maternal and newborn health services, there is a strong need to support evidence-based interventions to mitigate the impact of the pandemic, including the knock-on effects on the most vulnerable. It is critical to ensure evidence-based guidance is effectively translated into practical tools and resources to equip and empower stakeholders and partners during the COVID-19 response and beyond. In response, the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH), the world’s largest alliance for women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health, has supported digital knowledge translation resources to support the COVID-19 response, including knowledge translation and advocacy toolkits for maternal-newborn health, as well as a self-care video series in times of COVID-19. Watch this engaging networking session where we share ideas and learn from experiences on how to use innovative digital tools to translate the latest evidence-based information on maternal, newborn and child health into effective advocacy and action.
Featured Resource
Breastfeeding and COVID-19
Produced by PMNCH with technical guidance from WHO and in collaboration with Medical Aid Films and Studio, this video demonstrates how mothers with Covid can safely breastfeed, providing their newborn with the best source of nutrition and protection to survive and thrive.
Explore the New What Women Want Dashboard | The White Ribbon Alliance
From 2018-2019, White Ribbon Alliance and partners mobilized 1.2 million women and girls worldwide to share their top request for their own reproductive and maternal health. Results from the What Women Want campaign were a revelation about what matters most to women, especially the basics that should underpin delivery of any health service. To be treated with respect and dignity; to have water, sanitation and hygiene available; to be able to obtain quality, safe medicines and supplies; and to have access to more and better skilled health professionals, including midwives. This networking event explored the What Women Want Dashboard, a radically innovative digital tool that details every woman’s request in her own words and show you how to harness the power of women’s voices to inform program, funding and advocacy priorities for maternal and newborn health and beyond.
Networking Young Professionals Network | CORE Group
This interactive networking session, hosted by the CORE Group’s Young Professionals Network (YPN), welcomed future innovators of global community health and international development. This session was open to the public but mainly aimed to include 21-35-year-olds who are students, interns, or early career professionals. The session started with an icebreaker through Zoom polls. It was then followed by an open discussion for young people to propose discussion topics related to the conference theme.
Networking: Innovative Solutions to Improve Adherence to Evidence-Based Practices around Childbirth
Experiences from India | Dakshata
Improved access to quality of care is inextricably linked with better maternal and neonatal health outcomes. Quality of care is a multi-dimensional concept that incudes availability of evidence-based guidelines, strengthened infrastructure, resources, enabling environment, attitude of health providers; all these in turn result in patients’ and providers’ satisfaction and improved health outcomes. Studies show that lower maternal and neonatal mortality correlate with an increased number of completed essential birth practices, regardless of which practices were done. Although minimum care standards and best practices for safe childbirth have been extensively described, there exist well recognized gaps in newborn and maternal care practices at birthing sites worldwide.
In India, Jhpiego, a nonprofit global health leader and Johns Hopkins University affiliate, collaborated with the State Government of Rajasthan, to implement an intrapartum and immediate postpartum quality improvement initiative, based on the WHO Safe Childbirth Checklist (SCC). The results of this initiative showed significant improvement in provider adherence to essential clinical practices, as well as 11% reduction in stillbirths and very early neonatal deaths. Seeing the favorable results of the initiative, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), Government of India (GoI), launched a quality improvement initiative under the name ‘Dakshata’ (meaning- adroitness, in Hindi) in 2015, aimed at strengthening the quality of care during and immediately after childbirth through competent, skilled, and confident healthcare providers. With support from Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), Jhpiego supported the rollout of the Dakshata program in Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh, as well as the national scale-up activities through strategic technical assistance to MoHFW, GoI.
This session started with a short video introducing the Dakshata program. This was followed by a brief presentation by a state government official, giving an overview of Dakshata program in India. Following this, a detailed presentation was made by the Jhpiego India team on the various innovative strategies and solutions adopted under Dakshata to improve adherence to evidence-based practices around childbirth. The Jhpiego team discussed the various challenges encountered leading to low adherence to evidence-based practices around childbirth, innovative solutions adopted by the program team to address each challenge and program results to substantiate the effectiveness of these innovative solutions. The session ended with an open house where participants’ queries will be addressed by the state government official and Jhpiego India team. This session provided an opportunity to share the learnings and experiences from India, for improving provider adherence to evidence-based practices that can be replicated in other countries.
Networking Meet the Panelists: Establishing Inpatient Care
Experiences from India | Dakshata
This networking session was a chance to meet and informally chat with presenters from the panel on Establishing Inpatient Care: Lessons Learned to Inform Quality of Care for Small and Sick Newborns.