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Maternal, Newborn and Reproductive Health
Each year, nearly 3 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 small set of low-cost, 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 newborn care.
Family Planning: Save the Children’s family planning and reproductive health work focuses on the expansion of contraceptive services, the promotion of healthy timing and spacing of pregnancies, and the expansion of youth-friendly sexual and reproductive health services.
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.
Labour, Delivery and Newborn care: Save the Children labor and delivery work focusses on ensuring skilled care at birth, basic newborn care, neonatal resuscitation, treatment of severe newborn infections, supportive care for sick and small newborns, and the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
The organization works with governments, civil society and communities 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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A New Look at Care in Pregnancy: Simple, Effective Interventions for Neglected Populations
This report seeks to fill a research gap observed on the potential impact of antenatal care (ANC). Since the work done by WHO almost 15 years ago, there has been relatively little attention in the maternal-newborn health community to the content and poten
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Newborn Health in Humanitarian Settings Field Guide
The Newborn Health in Humanitarian Settings: Field Guide provides guidance and tools to reduce neonatal morbidity and mortality in humanitarian crisis situations that result from natural disasters, armed conflicts, political turmoil and other social and s
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Newborn Health in Emergencies Summary Sheet
This summary sheet of newborn health in emergencies will tell you: What you need to know When do you need to worry How do you plan a prevention and/or response program What data should you be collecting How do you work with the community And a selection o
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Ending Newborn Deaths: Ensuring every baby survives
This report shows that, in 2012, 2.9 million babies died within 28 days of being born: two out of every five child deaths. Of these, 1 million babies died within 24 hours. Causes of these deaths include premature birth, complications during birth and infe
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Neonatal Survival in Complex Humanitarian Emergencies: Setting an evidence-based research agenda
This study utilizes the child Health and Nutrition Research Initiative (CHNRI) methodology to prioritize research questions on neonatal health in complex humanitarian emergencies. The authors found that countries with the highest neonatal mortality rates
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Afghanistan Country Brief: Scaling up community midwifery education for maternal and newborn health
In Afghanistan, roughly 6,400 women die each year from pregnancy-related complications, with more than one-third of deaths resulting from severe bleeding during or shortly after delivery. An estimated 25% of maternal deaths could be prevented with appropr
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Surviving the First Day: State of the World’s Mothers 2013
Globally, 3 million newborns die each year, mostly due to easily preventable or treatable causes, and more than a third (1 million per year) die on their first day of birth, making it the riskiest time for newborns and mothers almost everywhere. The majo
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Neonatal Survival Intentions in Humanitarian Emergencies: A survey of current practices and programs
In order to better understand newborn care in humanitarian settings – and to better plan and programme for future responses – it is necessary to understand current policies and practices. This study employed a snow ball sampling technique of humanitarian