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Maternal, Newborn, and Reproductive Health
Each year, nearly 2.6 million children die within the first 28 days of life, nearly one third of these deaths occur on the first day of life. An additional 2.6 million babies are stillborn. A further 290,000 women die each year of complications related to pregnancy and childbirth. The vast majority of these deaths can be prevented through the delivery of a targeted set of proven interventions. Unfortunately, these lifesaving interventions are not reaching those most in need.
Save the Children's MNRH work aims to increase access to three lifesaving service packages: (a) family planning and reproductive health, (b) antenatal care, and (c) labour, delivery and maternal and newborn care and Postnatal/Postpartum Care
Family Planning: Save the Children’s family planning and reproductive health work focuses on improving access to quality contraceptive services, the promotion of healthy timing and spacing of pregnancies, and the expansion of youth-friendly sexual and reproductive health services, particularly for underserved populations.
Antenatal Care: Save the Children’s antenatal care work focusses on expanding access to the World Health Organization’s focused antenatal care package, including the delivery of the tetanus toxoid vaccine, iron/folic acid supplementation, the prevention and treatment of malaria during pregnancy, and the prevention and treatment of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, to ensure positive pregnancy experience for women and their family.
Labour, Delivery and maternal newborn care during postnatal/postpartum: Save the Children labor and delivery work focusses on ensuring skilled care at birth, basic newborn care, management of maternal complications through strengthening Basic Emergency and Newborn Obstetric care, neonatal resuscitation, treatment of severe newborn infections, supportive care for sick and small newborns, the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and care to both mother and newborn during the postpartum/postnatal period
The organization works with governments, UN agencies, civil society and communities through a health systems approach to expand access to these services, and to promote the adoption of healthy maternal, reproductive and newborn care practices.
Photo: Colin Crowley/Save the Children
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Religious Leaders' Handbook on Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights
Developed as a tool for religious leaders, this handbook assists the reader in understanding and addressing sexual and reproductive health and rights issues among children and adolescents. After a pilot session in Lusaka, Zambia, in November 2017 at a reg
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The Road to 2021
With 100 years of global experience and over 50 years of work in India, Save the Children 2019-21 Strategic Plan builds on past achievements and learning. India has a critical role to play in achieving a world where no children die from preventable causes
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A Declaration to Accelerate Newborn Health in Humanitarian Settings
In February 2019, co-convened by Save the Children, UNICEF, WHO, UNHCR, and HRH Princess Sarah Zeid, experts and key stakeholders from multiple sectors within the humanitarian and development fields met in Geneva, Switzerland to catalyze a global agenda f
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Postabortion Care in Humanitarian Emergencies: Improving Treatment and Reducing Recurrence
This article summarizes how Save the Children applied a multipronged postabortion care (PAC) approach in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Somalia, and Yemen that focused on capacity building; assurance of supplies and infrastructure; community
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Roadmap to Accelerate Progress for Every Newborn in Humanitarian Settings 2020-2025
This document sets out a vision for how improvements could be made for mothers and newborns in humanitarian settings. The audience for this roadmap includes stakeholders from both the development and humanitarian communities, including maternal and newbor
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5 Year Report 2012-2017: Guiding the Way Forward (Survive & Thrive)
This is the final five-year report of the Survive & Thrive Global Development Alliance, which summarizes key achievements in improving maternal, newborn, and child health outcomes through clinical training, systems strengthening and policy advocacy. Survi
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"They Love Their Patients": Client Perceptions of Quality Postabortion Care in North and South Kivu, the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Postabortion care (PAC) is a lifesaving intervention that, when accessible and of good quality, can prevent the majority of abortion-related deaths. However, these services are only sporadically available and often of poor quality in humanitarian settings
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Emergency Contraception in Reproductive Health Programs in Humanitarian Settings
Our reproductive health in emergencies program strives to provide a full range of modern contraceptive methods so that women may access the contraception method that is best suited to their needs. Emergency contraception (EC) is a critical part to the con
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Off the Radar: Meeting Contraceptive Needs of Populations on the Move
This meeting summary provides an overview of and findings from the “Off the Radar: Meeting Contraceptive Needs of Populations on the Move” side event from the International Conference on Family Planning 2018. It is a helpful resource for program staff who
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Global Health Newborn Legacy
Save the Children has long been on the leading edge of global progress for children. In commemoration of our 100-year anniversary in 2019, Save the Children USA looked back to capture our legacy in three key areas of global health where we have focused ou
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Surviving Day One: Caring for mothers and newborns in humanitarian emergencies on the day of childbirth
Ensuring women and newborns are provided quality, respectful, timely and effective care, particularly in the hardest to reach places, requires collective action. This paper highlights priorities and recommendations by the Inter-Agency Working Group on Rep
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Using research priority-setting to guide bridging the implementation gap in countries: A case study of the Uganda newborn research priorities in the SDG era
One of the greatest challenges that countries face regarding the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets for child health involve the actions required to improve neonatal health; these interventions have to be informed by evidence. I