Now available! "Preventing Postpartum Hemorrhage in Africa:
Moving from Research to Practice" conference report
27 September 2006
 From 4-7 April 2006,
the ACCESS Program—in partnership* with the Regional Centre for Quality of Health Care
(RCQHC), the East, Central and Southern African Health Community Secretariat (ECSA) and
the Prevention of Postpartum Hemorrhage Initiative (POPPHI)—hosted a regional conference
in Entebbe, Uganda, focusing on postpartum hemorrhage (PPH). The overall purpose of the
conference was to increase knowledge of the devastating effects of this largely preventable
complication and to advance programming in Africa for its prevention and treatment, in
support of the Millennium Development Goal to reduce maternal mortality by 75% by 2015.
Over the course of four intense days, almost 200 people from 21 African
countries, as well as Canada, Denmark, Haiti, India, Switzerland and the United States,
worked together to:
 Review evidence that supports strategies for prevention and
treatment of PPH in health care and home birth settings, by skilled providers as well
as by community health workers and family members;
- Examine best practices for implementing large-scale programs for
preventing and treating PPH; and
- Develop action plans for preventing and treating PPH at
facility and community levels using evidence-based approaches and programmatic best
practices.
 Participants included policymakers and program managers from ministries of
health at national and subnational levels; leading clinical experts and researchers;
midwives, nurses and physicians; faculty from medical, nursing and midwifery schools;
in-service trainers; leaders of nongovernmental and international donor organizations;
and representatives from the World Health Organization, United Nations Children’s Fund
(UNICEF), and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) global and regional
offices and missions.
ACCESS is pleased
to announce that a complete report of this groundbreaking event is now available. The
118-page document, which is ideal for use in informing policy development, health systems
strengthening and program planning, contains:
-
 Summaries of presentations, skills lab sessions and other
conference activities, which provide a wealth of practical, ready-to-apply information—and
suggest areas of ongoing discussion or future research—on a wide range of PPH-related
issues, including: the basics of performing active management of third stage of labor,
to prevent PPH where there are skilled providers; steps for registering misoprostol
in a country, for use where there are no skilled providers; effective methods for
treating PPH, with a dual emphasis on improving basic emergency obstetric care and
introducing innovative treatments (e.g., hydrostatic tamponade); and strategies for
developing sound policies and ensuring an enabling environment for sustainable program
implementation and scale-up.
- Highlights
from lively open-floor discussions, which address
many common questions and concerns around PPH prevention, treatment and programming;
- Selected country action plans, which were developed by country
teams to act as a blueprint—in the areas of policy and advocacy, service delivery,
training/supervision/logistics, and community education and social mobilization—for
the next six months to three years of PPH programming in their respective countries;
- A listing of donor and technical assistance agencies with
programs in which maternal and neonatal health and PPH are priorities, as well as
key areas of organizational interest or programmatic expertise/experience for each; and
- Highlights and summary of program priorities, which
articulate points of consensus established throughout the course of the conference,
while pointing to the way forward.
The report can be read online in
PDF format and/or ordered in
print format.
(Note: The online PDF is 1.9 MB and may take a while to download
at lower connection speeds.)
* And in collaboration with USAID/Washington and USAID Regional Offices
(Regional Economic Development Services Office [REDSO] and West Africa Regional Program [WARP])
About ACCESS
The ACCESS Program is the U.S. Agency for International Development’s
global program to improve maternal and newborn health. The ACCESS Program works to expand
coverage, access and use of key maternal and newborn health services across a continuum
of care from the household to the hospital—with the aim of making quality health services
accessible for women and newborns.
Jhpiego implements the program in partnership with Save the
Children, Constella Futures, the Academy for Educational Development, the American
College of Nurse-Midwives and IMA World Health.
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