Born On Time: A Public-Private Partnership for the Prevention of Preterm Birth

Despite progress on reducing child mortality newborn mortality is declining at a slower pace and preterm birth complications is the single most significant cause of newborn mortality. This project aims to contribute to the reduction of preterm birth rates through an integrated approach addressing lifestyle infection nutrition and contraception (LINC) factors. Through a health consortium - led by World Vision Canada and including Plan Canada and Save the Children Canada - this project is addressing the LINC factors in Bangladesh Ethiopia and Mali to reduce the incidence of preterm birth and its related complications. Project activities include: (1) training of facility healthcare workers and community health workers on high quality care for pregnant women and newborns; (2) upgrading of health facilities and provision of essential supplies; (3) strengthening of referral systems by providing training to front line service providers; (4) conducting outreach activities to address knowledge gaps related to healthy pregnancies and prevention of preterm birth; (5) empowering women’s self-confidence negotiation and leadership skills by conducting awareness raising at the community level (6) improving data collection and registration on birth death and still birth by providing training to health care providers and updating reporting tools; (7) documenting and sharing of evidence-based best practices with regional and national policy and decision makers.

The expected intermediate outcomes for this project include: (1) Improved availability of maternal newborn and reproductive health services to prevent and care for preterm births; (2) Increased utilization of maternal newborn and reproductive health services to prevent and care for preterm births; and (3) Enhanced utilization of evidence-based gender-specific information on preterm birth data for decision making at various levels of the health system.