Combatting Postpartum Hemorrhage

Project Contact:

Rachel Gooden, Project Coordinator   

The Importance of PPH Management

FIGO regards the effective treatment of PPH an essential element of maternal health care services.  PPH is the biggest single cause of maternal death in the world, often in combination with anemia and ensuring health professionals are knowledgeable and trained in effective management strategies is critical if we are to reduce the numbers of maternal mortality.

Decreased access to quality care, limited resources, and lack of education and awareness of PPH continues to put mothers at risk of dying in childbirth. PPH occurs in every setting. It is important that ALL women have access to quality care which includes management of PPH.

What we do

FIGO is working with implementing partners and national societies in 3 countries to raise their capacity to effectively manage PPH.  National societies of obstetrics and gynecology are critical stakeholders in advocating for and building the capacity of national health systems to provide the right care to women, at the right moment.  Their technical expertise and close relationships with other partners including the Ministry of Health, are important in galvanizing the commitment to training, rolling out effective treatment packages and ensuring the wider health system environment enables quality care for all women can be provided at the moment it is needed.

Project Objectives

The project’s aims include:

1. Working alongside our technical partners, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), provide technical support to select regional and national societies, and identified professional maternal health leaders to help accelerate PPH control efforts for improved PPH diagnosis and management.
2. Using a variety of approaches to build capacity, including international advocacy, sharing of lessons learned, national level partnerships, situational analysis, advocacy/leadership training, mentorship of champions, strategy development, follow up workshops and facility visits.
3. Move beyond simply a training-based approach, focusing more on comprehensive implementation approach to improve PPH control, including capacity building, combined with area-based efforts emphasizing network integration and local data use for problems solving.

FIGO will support the 3 technical implementing partner organizations and national obs/gyn societies to deliver their project across the selected facilities, implementing the Emergency PPH Care Bundle, as well as engage in international advocacy efforts. The expected overall long-term impact of the project will be to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity from post-partum hemorrhage.

Project details

The Combatting Postpartum Hemorrhage Project will run for 30 months. 

Countries involved are: Kenya, Bangladesh and Uttar Pradesh, India.

The technical implementing partners are:

• South Asian Federation of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (SAFOG)
• Kenya Medical and Education Trust (KMET)
• Mahatma Gandhi Institute for Medical Sciences (MGIMS)