From millennium to sustainable development goals: research and innovation for maternal and newborn health

Abstract

In 2015, 303,000 women died due to causes related to pregnancy or childbirth, 2.7 million babies died before the age of 1 month, and 2.6 million were stillborn. While improvements in maternal and newborn health (MNH) have been achieved since 1990, more progress needs to be made in the years to come. Under the recently adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the first target of the health related goal is to reduce global maternal mortality to fewer than 70 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births by 2030. The highest risk for mothers and their babies occurs during labour, childbirth, and the first week after birth. Making sure that mothers and babies receive quality care at this crucial time can prevent needless deaths of women, newborns, and stillborn babies. At this time the international MNH community is looking at what did and did not work under the previous goals, and what can be done differently in the future. Innovative approaches are needed to best deliver the essential health services in the challenging contexts of the countries that carry the highest burden, i.e. in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. At the same time, changing contexts and emerging issues mean that the landscape is changing across country boundaries, and the response to these changes is crucial for the implementation of MNH solutions at scale. These changes include the emergence of wide-scale IT and telecommunications solutions, the changing public/private balance of care, increased population migration, the influence of changing lifestyles on pregnancy and the long-term consequences on the life of the child. More research is needed to better understand these issues, so that the health of mothers and their children can be safeguarded.