International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics

As a result of an ongoing collaboration between FIGO and the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, a special quarterly section on “The Keystone for Averting Maternal Death and Disability” , sponsored by the University, is featured in the International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics. The section’s Editor – Judith Fortney – explains this vitally important initiative:

'The goal of Columbia University’s “Averting Maternal Death and Disability” Program – or “AMDD” for short – is to increase the availability, quality and utilisation of care for women with obstetric complications, especially in developing countries. The new special section of IJGO will share this goal.  

'Why do we refer to the “keystone”? The arch of safe motherhood consists of many stones – prenatal care, nutrition, education, transport, the “risk approach”, trained attendants, home birth kits and others. But the arch will fall down – and mothers will die – if women do not receive prompt, adequate treatment when they suffer life-threatening complications during pregnancy, delivery or the puerperium. Several of these approaches explicitly depend on the availability of emergency obstetric care.  

'Articles will focus on programmes or interventions – primarily those in developing countries – that are intended to improve the availability and quality of care given to women who experience complications during pregnancy, childbirth and the puerperium, and on the proportion of women who receive such care. These interventions can address such questions as provision of transport, drug availability, professional skill improvement, logistics management, and blood bank management.'

How to contribute

If you have an article that you feel would fit into this section, instructions for authors can be obtained by emailing: Jafortney1@aol.com or by writing to the IJGO Editorial Assistant at:

Averting Maternal Death & Disability Program (AMDD)
Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health
Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
60 Haven Avenue, B3
New York, NY 10032 USA

Copies of AMDD articles contained in IJGO in Adobe Acrobat PDF format may be obtained by clicking on the relevant link below.  You may download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader here.

Latest AMDD articles:

July 2010 

• Editor's Comment
• An evaluation of a national intervention to improve the postabortion care content of midwifery education in Nigeria
• Lost opportunities for effective management of obstetric conditions to reduce
  maternal mortality and severe maternal morbidity in Argentina and Uruguay
• Availability and quality of emergency obstetric care in Shanxi Province, China
  

March 2010

• Editor's comment
• Uterotonic use at home births in low-income countries: A literature review
• Prevention of postpartum hemorrhage at home birth in Afghanistan
• Expanding uterotonic protection following childbirth through community-based distribution of misoprostol: Operations research study in Nepal
• Community-based distribution of misoprostol for treatment or prevention of postpartum hemorrhage: Cost-effectiveness, mortality, and morbidity reduction analysis

Earlier articles are listed chronologically below:

August 2001

• Editorial: Emergency obstetric care – the keystone in the arch of safe motherhood
• The AMDD Program: history, focus and structure
• Editor’s comment - The AMDD Program: history, focus and structure
• Monitoring obstetric services: putting the UN guidelines into practice in Malawi
• Editor’s comment - Monitoring obstetric services: putting the UN guidelines into practice in Malawi
• Holding up a mirror: changing obstetric practice through criterion-based clinical audit in developing countries
• Editor’s comment - Holding up a mirror: changing obstetric practice through criterion-based clinical audit in developing countries

October 2001

• Using human rights in maternal mortality programs: from analysis to strategy
• Editor's comment - Using human rights in maternal mortality programs: from analysis to strategy
• Monitoring services: putting the “UN Guidelines” into practice in Malawi: 3 years on
• Editor's comment - Monitoring obstetric services: putting the “UN Guidelines” into practice in Malawi: 3 years on

December 2001

• Efficient and effective emergency obstetric care in a rural Indian community where most deliveries are at home
• Editors comment: Efficient and effective obstetric care in a rural Indian community where most deliveries are at home
• Recommendations for renovating an operating theater at an emergency obstetric care facility
• Editor’s comment: Recommendations for renovating an operating theater at an emergency obstetric care facility

March 2002

• Program note: Using UN process indicators to assess needs in emergency obstetric services
• Editor’s comment: Using the UN process indicators to assess needs in  emergency obstetric services

June 2002

• Program note: Using UN process indicators to assess needs in emergency obstetric services: Bhutan, Cameroon and Rajasthan, India
• Preventing postpartum hemorrhage in low-resource settings

September 2002

• Concepts and techniques for planning and implementing a program for renovation of an emergency obstetric care facility
• Planning and implementing a program of renovations of emergency obstetric care facilities: experiences in Rajasthan, India
• Using UN process indicators to assess needs in emergency obstetric services: Pakistan, Peru and Vietnam

• Editors Comment
• The United Nations Process Indicators for emergency obstetric care: Reflections based on a decade of experience
• Counting abortions so that abortion counts: Indicators for monitoring the availability and use of abortion care services
• A risk reduction strategy to prevent maternal deaths associated with unsafe abortion

March 2007

• Editor's comment
• Emergency obstetric care as the priority intervention to reduce maternal mortality in Uganda
• Epidemiologic transition in maternal mortality and morbility: New challenges for Jamaica
• Program Note: Using UN process indicators to assess needs in emergency obstetric services: Gabon, Guinea- Bissau, and The Gambia

September 2007

• Editor's comment
• Strengthening emergency obstetric care in Nepal: The Women's Right to Life and Health Project(WRLHP)
• Changing patterns of emergency obstetric care at Nigerian University hospital
• Declining maternal mortality ration in Uganda: Priority interventions to achieve the Millennium Development Goal

November 2007

• Editor's comment
• Strengthening emergency obstetric care in Thanh Hoa and Quang Tri provinces in Vietnam 
• The challenges of improving emergency obstetric care in two rural districts in Mali
• Ensuring financial eccess to emergency obstetric care: Three years of experience with Obstetric Risk Insurance in Nouakchott, Mauritania

April 2008

• Editor's comment
• Factors associated with acute postpartum hemorrhage in low- risk women delivering in rural India
• An assessment of postabortion care in three regions in Ethiopia, 2000 to 2004
• Emergency obstetric care: How do we stand in Malawi?

• Editor's commet
• Reducing maternal mortality in Yemen: Challenges and lessons learnedfrom baseline assessment
• Maternal mortality in low-income countries: What interventions have beenevaluated and how should the evidence base be developed further?

• Reducing maternal moreality among Afghan refugees in pakistan

July 2009

• Editor's comments
• Confidential inquiries into maternal deaths: modifications and adaptions in Ghana and Indonesia
• Maternal death review in Africa
• Perinatal audit using the three delays model in Western Tanzania  

December 2009

• Where there is no anesthetist – increasing capacity for emergency obstetric care in rural India: An evaluation of a pilot program to train general doctors
• Saving mothers and newborns through an innovative partnership with private sector obstetricians: Chiranjeevi scheme of Gujarat, India
• Editor's Comment
• Using audits to reduce the incidence of uterine rupture in a Malawian district hospital

• Where there is no obstetrician – increasing capacity for emergency obstetric care in rural India: An evaluation of a pilot program to train general doctors