Maternal, Newborn & Child Health

The Right Services, at the Right Time, in the Right Ways

Around the world, women and their babies are dying from preventable complications before, during and after childbirth. This is tragic because many of these complications can be treated with simple and affordable solutions. We work to increase the number of women who have access to high-quality care that can prevent these deaths. The right services, at the right time, in the right ways—whether that’s through group antenatal care, a skilled midwife during childbirth or text messages with tips about vaccines and check-ups for young children. 

Since 1990, maternal mortality has declined more than 40% worldwide. In the last five years alone, 19.6 women gave birth in a Jhpiego-supported health facility with skilled care by their side. No country can thrive when its women and newborns are in danger before, during and after birth. Ensuring healthy families helps communities thrive today, tomorrow and far into the future.

More than 800 women die every day from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth.

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Countries we support

Since 1979, when Jhpiego initiated in-country training programs in Tunisia, Brazil, Kenya, Nigeria, Thailand and the Philippines, we have worked with more than 150 countries throughout Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East to improve the health of women and their babies. We are a global leader in maternal and newborn health, with five decades of experience and countless lives saved across the world.

A Worthwhile Life

Tatu Shabani and her husband Jumanne Ramadhani proudly pose with their daughter Pili and Midwife Rose Julius Hamisi at the Miswaki Dispensary in Tanzania. They are thankful a skilled provider was there to help Tatu give birth.

Read Rose’s story

How We Make an Impact

We increase access to health care by addressing the barriers to quality maternal and newborn health care. We do this by working with country-led programs to:

  • Plan expansion of health services to reach more women and infants across the continuum of care, from community to health facility
  • Strengthen health systems to ensure that essential medicines and supplies are available in health facilities
  • Integrate education and training on maternal and newborn health to ensure that providers (doctors, midwives and nurses) have the skills to care for women and their babies
  • Conduct implementation research on innovative strategies to fill the gaps in care that families experience

We help country-led programs build local capacity to measure and track their own progress in providing high-quality care to women and infants. Research has shown that giving birth in a health facility with a skilled attendant is by itself not enough to reduce maternal and newborn deaths [1]. Improving the quality of care that families experience is critical for accelerating reductions in preventable maternal and newborn deaths [2, 3]. This means focusing on both the provision and the experience of care, including dignified maternity and newborn care.

We use our strong background in training and mentorship and our clinical expertise in obstetrics/gynecology, midwifery and newborn health to improve the skills of providers by supporting country-led programs to provide evidence-based health services, including:

Since 1998, we have led a series of U.S. Agency for International Development flagship global programs to increase maternal and newborn health and survival. Our technical teams also play a leadership role in the global community, serving as members and leaders of multiple global technical working groups that address maternal and newborn complications, including postpartum hemorrhage, maternal sepsis, pre-eclampsia/eclampsia, effects of COVID-19 infection as well as a range of other global program:

  • AlignMNH—AlignMNH is a global initiative founded in 2020 to accelerate progress in improving maternal and newborn health outcomes and prevent stillbirths around the globe. AlignMNH works in partnership with global and country-based organizations, national-level technical working groups and other maternal and newborn health-focused initiatives to more rapidly share science, evidence and programmatic experience across the maternal and newborn health communities.
  • Antenatal and Postnatal Care Research Collective (ARC)—Jhpiego is a key partner in ARC, a global collective of organizations studying innovative ways to improve early access, continuity and quality of maternal and newborn health care.
  • Helping Mothers Survive and Helping Babies Survive—Jhpiego participates in a consortium of global partners to provide and promote these training programs that provide evidence-based learning modules designed to improve and sustain the skills of midwives, nurses, doctors, and those who provide direct care during pregnancy, labor and birth.
  • Inter-Agency Working Group on Reproductive Health in Crises (IAWG)—Jhpiego serves on the steering committee and the committee to revise the IAWG’s manual and maternal and newborn refresher training packages. We also provide technical resources for organizations working to improve the availability and quality of reproductive health services in crisis-affected countries.

We partner with ministries of health and hundreds of local and international  organizations, including professional associations (International Confederation of Midwives, The International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics and national professional associations for midwifery and obstetrics) and these private sector partners: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, GE Foundation, Laerdal Global Health, and Merck for Mothers.

Help women and newborns survive.

Far too often, pregnant women fail to receive the high-quality, respectful, life-saving care they deserve before, during and after birth. Help us save lives and ensure families have the care they need to survive childbirth and thrive.

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