Maternal, Newborn and Child Health
The foundation of every strong community is based on healthy women and healthy newborns are the future of a nation.
Every year about 300,000 women die from complications of pregnancy and childbirth, and an estimated three million newborns die within the first month of life. The vast majority of these avoidable deaths occur in developing countries, where there is lack of good health services and good facilities to cater for them. Many women give birth in facilities without adequate equipment and staff, or at home without skilled providers. Global Vision for Women and Children use of the high-impact, low-cost interventions have been effective in saving lives in these communities. We partner with agencies, private sectors and nonprofit organization to bring life saving measures to mothers and newborns in Nigeria. We develop training materials targeting major causes of maternal mortality.
Through our Maternal and Child Health Integrated Program, we play a critical role in guiding the world’s efforts toward attainment of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for reducing maternal and newborn morbidity and mortality.
We deliver evidence-based interventions including:
- Focused antenatal care, a platform for integrating a broad range of services for improving maternal and newborn outcomes, including prevention and treatment of malaria in pregnancy and prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV
- Increased capacity of skilled providers (doctors, midwives and nurses) to provide essential obstetric and newborn care to support normal labor and birth including presence of a companion, food and fluids, and use of desired positions for labor and birth
- Increased access to and use of basic and comprehensive emergency obstetric and newborn care, helping to ensure that the approximately 15% of births that develop complications are promptly identified and managed. This includes identification and management of pre-eclampsia and eclampsia, prevention and treatment of obstructed labor (a major cause of obstetric fistula), postpartum hemorrhage and newborn asphyxia—some of the most common causes of maternal and newborn morbidity and mortality
- Provision of family planning information and services during the antenatal and postpartum periods, another lifesaving intervention that has the potential to reach over 90% of women of reproductive age in high-fertility settings
- Improved quality of services and infection prevention practices that help reduce postpartum and newborn infections
