Safe Motherhood Alliance

Globally over 1 million mothers and babies die annually due to complications relating to childbirth, 95 % of these deaths occur in lower- middle-income countries and 57 % of all maternal deaths occur on the continent of Africa, with the highest maternal mortality ratio in the world. Safe Motherhood Alliance was established with the goal to reduce maternal and infant mortality rates through improved quality of care at time of childbirth, our vision is to prevent deadly and debilitating infections for over 20 million pregnant women across in Southern Africa region without access to maternal healthcare by giving them increased access to a clean, safe delivery, a healthy start for their newborns and trained traditional birth attendants so that they don't give birth alone. If I am selected as a winner, the funding and support from Elevate Prize would enable my organization to provide safe deliveries and lifesaving tools to 5 million pregnant women within 5 years and advance our mission to bring simplicity and dignity to women's health worldwide. Directly aligned with this mission, our solution aims to transform access to essential products that help women and their children survive (end preventable mortality) and thrive (improve health and well-being).

My experience during my first pregnancy in 2017 made me realize the challenges that pregnant women faced to give birth safely when I was asked by the public hospital to provide my own birth materials such as gloves, surgical blades etc for my childbirth or I would be sent back. In Zambia, only 47 % of births occur at a health facility, with over 53% of all births being home births as this is due to the broken healthcare system in the country due to lack of access to sterile supplies, distances to clinics and the high cost of accessing them. So pregnant women are forced to seek out other alternatives such as giving birth home. This is a situation that has put over 500,000 women of reproductive age per year at risk in Zambia and over 20 million people in Southern Africa with similar healthcare systems leading to one of the highest maternal and neonatal mortality rates in the world. At Safe Motherhood Alliance we believe that by getting the right tools and approaches to communities everywhere, we’re giving more mothers and babies the chance to thrive regardless of where they are born or where they live.

Over 800 pregnant women are dying each day globally from complications in pregnancy and childbirth, and for every woman who dies, approximately 20 others suffer serious injuries, infections or disabilities [1]. Zambia has a maternal mortality rate of 470 (per 100,000 live births) and a neo-natal mortality rate of 22.21 (per 1000 live births) [2]. 30% of the neonatal deaths occur due to complications during birth which are preventable if the birth is in a facility. With health care facilities few and far in between, and a doctor-patient ratio of 1:12000, the 47% are also still required to provide their own birthing materials. Our solution seeks to equip low-resource clinics, mothers and traditional birth attendants with the materials, the capacity and most importantly, the dignity, to deliver babies safely – in the clinics and their homes. Our strategy lies in developing skilled birth attendants who provide the bridge between the clinic and the home. We partnered with the Ministry of Health to identify trusted and experienced traditional birth attendants from the communities and train them on modern birthing practices, and in building relationships of trust in their communities.

[1] https://data.unicef.org/topic/maternal-health/maternal-mortality/

[2] https://knoema.com/atlas/Zambia/Neonatal-mortality-rate

We develop a low-cost, single-use, disposable baby delivery kit using appropriate technology containing all the essential tools for a safe birth and designed to meet their unique needs in resource-poor settings ensuring sterile conditions at childbirth. Our new approach includes a distribution model that involves training traditional birth attendants to function as frontline health workers in their communities thereby removing the anxiety from the birth process, and rebuilding trust between communities and clinics as well as earning an additional income. Since 2017, after our successful pilot in our first clinic and community, we have distributed 25,000 kits collectively and through our 1+1 design tool (1 pregnant woman + 1 newborn) we have impacted 50,000 mothers and newborns as each kit provides a safe outcome for both mother and newborn. While childbirth is a most vulnerable time, women face significant challenges and silent issues along the entire reproductive life cycle (menstruation, pregnancy, postpartum, breastfeeding, infancy). We understand that cost and accessibility are a barrier to the women in our target area and our organization has disrupted the system that allows extreme poverty to exist by addressing the challenges of health inequalities, improving healthcare access and balancing quality care with affordability. 

Knowledge about the importance of clean birth has been available for centuries but inequalities that exist in society have made this life-giving process dangerous for women of child-bearing age. Our planned impact at scale is designed for health facilities in low-resource settings, pregnant women who give birth unassisted in the home and live in low-income communities and rural areas. We believe by improving quality of care during childbirth both in health facilities and home births across urban and rural Zambia we are creating an enabling environment and starting point for a deeper conversation on safe birthing practices pre, during and post-birth to provide positive health outcomes for mothers and newborns. Caregivers such as traditional birth attendants or untrained community midwives play an important role in these communities and have the capacity to deliver and transfer essential care from home and beyond. They also build relationships with fathers, to enable family communication on birthing and child-rearing. Understanding that maternal anxiety over childbirth can often lead to mothers falling back on unsafe and superstitious practices, we are ensuring that mothers do not compromise their own safety and that of their newborn children in under-resourced clinic environments as well as at their homes.