Maternity Foundation is a Danish development organization committed to saving lives during childbirth in Africa. We strive to be a catalyst for positive change and an innovator for the development and promotion of new solutions that work.
Maternity Foundation is neutral and non-political. Our vision is: No women should die giving life. This vision is founded on the fundamental principle that all women and newborns are entitled to a safe birth. Unfortunately, 287.000 women lose their lives and 3 million newborns die during childbirth every year. 99% of them live in low income countries, where births often happen under unsafe circumstances. The causes of maternal and newborn death and disability are complex, but we know that if women have access to family planning, are giving birth with skilled attendance and can access emergency obstetric and newborn care in case of complications then the probability of maternal and newborn survival is high.
Maternity Foundation works to promote these conditions so that all women can give birth safely – also in low-income countries. We have a integrated focus on improving the quality of and access to health services. This includes empowering and mobilizing the local community to be in a better position to safeguard their reproductive health and train health care workers and hereby build up the clinical capacity of the health care system.
Maternity Foundation works to ensure that:
• All pregnancies are wanted
• All women give birth with skilled attendance
• All women and newborns have access to emergency obstetric and newborn care in case of complications
In 2011 Maternity Worldwide received a 100.000 DKK donation from One Life Foundation, which made it possible to start up the work with mHealth. Maternity Foundation works to develop and promote new solutions that work and has positioned itself as a strong actor within the emerging field of mHealth. mHealth – the use of mobile phones for health promotion - is a relatively new field with an abundant unexplored potential to strengthen health interventions for mothers and newborns in low-income countries. The potential for mHealth in sub-Saharan Africa is underscored by the IT and tele-revolution currently sweeping over the continent. The number of mobile phone subscribers has in few years sored from about 17 to more than 500 million users and is still increasing.
As part of the focus on strengthening the quality of care through clinical trainings, Maternity has in partnership with University of Copenhagen developed and is currently testing, an innovative smart-phone app called The Safe Delivery app.