Symposium on Community-Based Maternal and Newborn Care at UCL

Speakers:

• Prof Joy Lawn, Professor of Maternal Reproductive and Child Health Epidemiology, London School Hygiene & Tropical Medicine 
• Prof David Osrin, Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow in Clinical Science, UCL Institute for Global Health 

With 1000 days remaining to the Millennium Development Goal targets, there is an increased focus on reducing maternal and newborn deaths through equitable coverage of life-saving interventions. Community-based strategies to improve maternal and newborn health are receiving policy attention, but there are a number of ways of thinking about them. They may be perceived as individual interventions, as a platform for many activities, or even as a distraction from health system building. An increasing number of studies and trials have been published which examine a range of approaches, yet sometimes the evidence is grouped as if all community-based maternal newborn care strategies were the same. What does the latest evidence show and what is actually being scaled up?