"We want research to enable us to strengthen our action plans for making delivery safe, so that we can prevent mothers from dying during this dangerous time of pregnancy"
- Policy maker from Ministry of Health, Jamaica -
This sentiment is echoed throughout the world by programme managers and policy makers responsible for providing and improving maternity services. The Dugald Baird Centre for Research on Women's Health at the University of Aberdeen, with partners from Bangladesh, Ghana, Jamaica, Malawi and Mexico, has conducted research for the last two and a half years (September 2000 to February 2003) to address this very need. Expertise from within the University has also been drawn from the Centre for Advanced Studies in Nursing, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Department of Public Health.
This initiative, the SAFE (Skilled Attendance For Everyone) International Research Partnership, is aimed at providing new knowledge for the development of effective, affordable and equitable strategies to improve delivery care in developing countries. The study was also supported by key advisers from London, the United States and the World Health Organization in Geneva, and funded by the European Commission and the UK's Department for International Development.
Skilled attendance at delivery is the process by which a pregnant woman and her baby are provided with adequate care during labour and birth. A guide for the systematic use of research findings to develop strategies and action plans to improve skilled attendance in developing countries was one major output of SAFE. The guide focuses on improving the quality of care that already exists as well as making skilled attendance available and accessible to the many women who do not currently benefit from it.
A workshop is being held in Aberdeen on Monday 10 and Tuesday 11 February 2003 whereby the guide and the research findings from the SAFE study will be launched and presented to an international audience. The five partner countries will also present the action plans they have developed from using the guide with the purpose of attracting funding for the implementation of their delivery care programmes. Seventy participants representing international agencies, ministries of health and research institutions from more than 20 countries in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas will be attending the meeting.
Increasing the proportion of deliveries with skilled attendance is now being advocated by international agencies as a key strategy for reducing maternal and perinatal mortality and morbidity. It is anticipated that efforts such as the SAFE initiative which encourages the incorporation of research into practical plans for action will contribute to reducing pregnancy-related deaths throughout the world, which currently stands at more than half a million women every year.