WHO documents
A full list of WHO publications on "Making Pregnancy Safer" are available here
Below is a selection of key publications:
Strategic
Approach to Improving Maternal and Newborn Survival and HealthOverview
This strategic approach paper sets out a way forward for making pregnancy and childbirth safer for women and their newborns, and accelerating the reduction of maternal and perinatal mortality and morbidity - especially in the developing world, where 90% of these deaths occur.
The key message in this paper is continuum of care and universal coverage ensuring skilled care at every birth within the context of a continuum of care. "Integrated Management of Pregnancy and Childbirth" (IMPAC) will help shape technical support to countries in strategic and systematic ways to improve maternal and perinatal health. The paper sets out four strategic areas with 12 component approaches to reach the target of assuring skilled care at every birth within the continuum-of-care principle
World Health Report 2005: Make every mother and child
count - WHO, 2005
Overview
The World Health Report 2005 - Make Every Mother and Child Count, says that this year almost 11 million children under five years of age will die from causes that are largely preventable. Among them are 4 million babies who will not survive the first month of life. At the same time, more than half a million women will die in pregnancy, childbirth or soon after. The report says that reducing this toll in line with the Millennium Development Goals depends largely on every mother and every child having the right to access to health care from pregnancy through childbirth, the neonatal period and childhood.
Making Pregnancy Safer: The critical role of the
skilled attendant -WHO/ICM/FIGO 2004.
Overview
In this statement, WHO, the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) and the International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) advocate for skilled care for all women during pregnancy, childbirth and the immediate postnatal period. This document is especially aimed at countries in which the coverage of skilled attendance at birth is below 85%. It defines clearly who is a skilled attendant, what skills she/he should have and how she/he should be trained and supported.
Beyond the numbers: Reviewing maternal deaths and
complications to make pregnancy safer - WHO 2004
Overview
Every year some eight million women suffer from pregnancy-related complications and over half a million die from them. Most of these deaths can be averted even where resources are limited but, in order to do so, the right kind of information is needed upon which to base actions. This book presents ways of generating this kind of information.
The approaches described go beyond just counting deaths to developing an understanding of why they happened and how they can be averted. This book is directed at health professionals, health-care planners and managers working in the area of maternal and newborn health who are striving to improve the quality of care provided.
Global Action for skilled attendants for pregnant
women - WHO, 2004
Overview
This document proposes an accountability framework for urgent and concerted action at both international and national levels for increasing access to skilled attendants. It aims to assist key actors at both national and international levels in identifying and fulfilling their core responsibilities and roles to achieve skilled care for all women and their newborn babies during pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period.
The framework proposes a 5+5 strategy (5 key partners and 5 strategic actions) to ensure that countries and partners come together around the health agenda encapsulated in the Millennium Declaration and reduce maternal and newborn mortality and morbidity.
Maternal Mortality in 2005: Estimates developed by
WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, The World Bank
Overview
The 2005 estimates of maternal mortality provide an up-to-date indication of the extent of the maternal mortality problem globally and its evolution since 1990. They strongly indicate a need for both, improved action for maternal mortality reduction and increased efforts for the generation of robust data to provide better estimates in the future.
Managing Complication in Pregnancy and Childbirth: A
guide for midwives and doctors - WHO, 2003
Overview
This easy-to-use manual is arranged by symptoms (e.g. vaginal bleeding in early pregnancy). Because this symptom-based approach is different from most medical texts, which are arranged by disease, a corresponding diagnosis table is provided. Links have been used extensively to facilitate navigation between symptoms and diagnoses. The clinical action steps are based on clinical assessment with limited reliance on laboratory or other tests and most can be performed in a variety of clinical settings (e.g. district hospital or health centre).
