Global Maternal Health Conference 2013

https://vimeo.com/58707228

Moderator: Joel Segre, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

15 million preterm births: Where, why and trends?
Joy Lawn, Saving Newborn Lives

The session started with a representative from the Saving Newborn Lives initiative who gave a highlight of the situation as well as an overview of the different targets that are being set given the current situation.

Interventions for preventing and managing preterm birth
Jeffrey Smith, Jhpiego

Jhpiego presented on the importance of prevention, management and care of preterm births. The Jhpiego presentation also included the importance of identifying potential pre-term mothers and stressed how widely-available treatments were for compounding factors that could potentially lead to pre-term births.

Antenatal steroids for preterm birth: Rapid change is possible
Joel Segre, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Finally the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation stressed the importance of antenatal steroids, which were being added to updated guidelines at that moment. The presentation also stressed that steroids provided an easy way to save a great quantity of pre-term newborns from mortality. All the presentations stressed that capacity development as well as awareness campaigns needed to be more focused upon.