A project to save the lives of mothers during childbirth in two crisis-hit countries, which was axed in Donald Trump’s drastic foreign aid cuts, is getting off the ground after former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern stepped in to rescue it.
Postpartum haemorrhage, excessive bleeding after giving birth, is one of the leading causes of maternal mortality around the world. The saved programme will see a team of leading maternal health experts test an approach including using a plastic blood-collection device known as a drape to measure how much someone is bleeding and identify more swiftly if they are losing dangerous amounts. The aim is to reach women in some of the most dangerous places to give birth – and test whether the approach works as well in conflict zones as in more stable countries.
