Successful implementation of Helping Babies Survive and Helping Mothers Survive programs—An Utstein formula for newborn and maternal survival

Abstract

Globally, the burden of deaths and illness is still unacceptably high at the day of birth. Annually, approximately 300.000 women die related to childbirth, 2.7 million babies die within their first month of life, and 2.6 million babies are stillborn. Many of these fatalities could be avoided by basic, but prompt care, if birth attendants around the world had the necessary skills and competencies to manage life-threatening complications around the time of birth. Thus, the innovative Helping Babies Survive (HBS) and Helping Mothers Survive (HMS) programs emerged to meet the need for more practical, low-cost, and low-tech simulation-based training. This paper provides users of HBS and HMS programs a 10-point list of key implementation steps to create sustained impact, leading to increased survival of mothers and babies. The list evolved through an Utstein consensus process, involving a broad spectrum of international experts within the field, and can be used as a means to guide processes in low-resourced countries. Successful implementation of HBS and HMS training programs require country-led commitment, readiness, and follow-up to create local accountability and ownership. Each country has to identify its own gaps and define realistic service delivery standards and patient outcome goals depending on available financial resources for dissemination and sustainment.

Decision-making for birth location among women in Pakistan: evidence from national survey

“…A caution is in order, however, that above-mentioned strategies could only be effective if an integrated policy aimed at winning the trust of all partners and participants in perinatal care delivery system is designed as trust, at least to some minimal extent, is undoubtedly a prerequisite to seeking care at all [ 58 – 60 ]. It must be remembered that behavioural change occurs gradually and to make an impact on the ground government must know the dynamics and feel constraints in the health system [ 61 ].…”

Helping Babies Breathe, Second Edition: A Model for Strengthening Educational Programs to Increase Global Newborn Survival

“…The framework for improving survival worldwide is summarized in the Utstein Formula for Survival, based on the consensus of international experts, which states that survival is the product of medical science, educational effectiveness, and implementation ( Figure 1 ). 26 , 27 Although the development of the first edition of the HBB curriculum focused on the design of the educational program, adding the components of the Utstein Formula for Survival to the second edition helped provide a framework for identifying changes that resulted from an additional focus on enhanced educational effectiveness, skills retention, and the importance of coordination with national resources and leadership. The framework also identified 2 key challenges: sustainability and wide implementation.…”

Improving Global Newborn Survival: Building upon <b><i>Helping Babies Breathe</i></b>

“…To date, global educational initiatives have focused on in-service education rather than addressing both in-service and pre-service education [34]. While directing education to those already providing patient care is an urgent priority to improve patient outcomes, the logistics of providing continuing education in the clinical setting are particularly challenging.…”