WHAT WE DO:

Maternal & Newborn Care

One woman dies every minute during pregnancy or childbirth. More than 10 million women a year suffer severe of long-lasting illnesses or disabilities caused by complications of pregnancy or childbirth, with the health and wellbeing of mother and child heavily intertwined—obstetric complications account for the majority of neonatal mortality. Because an estimated 37 percent of child deaths occur during the first month of life, survival of both of the mother and infant is greatly dependant on a woman’s access to maternal care, including skilled birth attendance.

Throughout our history, Pathfinder has supported integrated and comprehensive services for maternal and newborn care. Our community interventions to improve healthy practices such as delaying early marriage and first pregnancy, expanding access to contraception and family planning, and increasing the availability of prenatal care, skilled delivery, and postpartum care, are widely respected. Pathfinder’s contributions to postabortion care—both at the service delivery and community level—are globally recognized. 

In recent years, Pathfinder has escalated its maternal and newborn care work, initiating programs that include training midwives and skilled birth attendants to help ensure safe pregnancies and deliveries; promoting life-saving, emergency obstetric care to address complications such as postpartum hemorrhage; and supporting engaged communities to ensure that they are aware of danger signs and can transport women to facilities where emergency care is available. The goal of Pathfinder’s maternal and newborn work is developing a replicable continuum of care model so that mothers and their newborns have access to help and information at every point during pregnancy and childbirth—from the household to the hospital—and then safely home.

Featured Projects

	India and Nigeria: Continuum of Care: Addressing Postpartum Hemorrhage in India and Nigeria: A major project, the continuum of care model focuses on prevention and care of postpartum hemorrhage at all levels—from the household to the hospital.

	Ghana: Obstetric Fistula Prevention and Treatment: Raising fistula awareness; increasing the availability and accessibility of fistula prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation services.

	Kenya: Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV/AIDS: Providing HIV counseling and testing services to expectant mothers and delivering antiretroviral therapy that prevents the transmission of HIV from mother-to-child.

	Youth-Friendly Postabortion Care: A one-year project addressing unsafe abortion among adolescent women in Angola, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Uganda.

Featured Publications

Clinical and Community Action to Address Postpartum Hemorrhage: The Pathfinder International Model, May 2010 This paper provides an overview of the Pathfinder model that incorporates community and advocacy interventions with clinical prevention and management to address postpartum hemorrhage.  The article includes a brief description of the application and use of the nonpneumatic anti-shock garment that can stabilize a woman until she receives emergency obstetric care.

More Publications: Maternal and Child Health 

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 Watch Aisha's story: The segment, which shows the non-pneumatic anti-shock garment, is part of an upcoming documentary highlighting maternal and newborn care work in Nigeria.

Refusing to Accept Maternal Mortality: The Spring 2009 issue of Pathways highlights a range of Pathfinder's maternal care work around the world.

New Technology Saves Nigerian Women's Lives: Two women saved during recent Pathfinder trainings for the Continuum of Care project.