Women Deliver Maternal Health Theme: Call For Topics

A special message from our friends organizing the maternal and newborn health (MNH) track at the upcoming Women Deliver Conference:

The third Global Women Deliver Conference will be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on May 28-30th 2013, with an anticipated 5,000 participants from across the globe. Maternal and Newborn Health is once again a major theme in the conference, presenting an opportunity to highlight the latest evidence and solutions to improve women’s and newborn health. Other themes include: abortion, faith, health services and policy, HIV/AIDS, human rights, investments in women, sexuality, sustainability and youth.

There will be 12 sessions in the MNH theme, allowing for approximately 40 speakers. The topics and content are being developed by a coordination team including Petra ten Hoope-Bender of the Instituto de Cooperación Social Integrare (lead organiser), Jeffrey Smith of Jhpiego, Mary Nell Wegner of the Maternal Health Task Force and Claudia Morrissey and Winnie Mwebesa from Save the Children.

This is an invitation to all individuals working in the field of MNH to contribute ideas and suggestions on the topics and issues that the MNH stream should cover. Topics that have already been proposed include: commodities, health worker engagement, high-impact interventions, indirect causes of death, m-health, midwifery, monitoring and evaluation, morbidities, post-natal care, quality of care and young motherhood. There is communication with the abortion, HIV/AIDS, family planning and health services and policy themes to avoid overlap. We will view MNH contributions within a comprehensive reproductive health frame.

What we request of you is some thoughtful consideration on those topics you believe are most relevant, current, new and ground-breaking. What are the topics that are forging new paths and creating new solutions in maternal and newborn health? Which of today’s ideas will be tomorrow’s solutions? What do you think the global community needs to better understand so that we all may continue to advance the field?

Please send us no more than 2 topics, including a reference to an article, a programme, a presentation or a speaker so that we can easily follow up on your suggestion. Please do NOT send abstracts. The sessions themselves are decided by the team and are by invitation, not as the result of an abstract process. The coordination group will review and discuss all suggested topics to construct a dynamic and refreshing MNH theme for the conference. Please note that speakers/organisations are expected to fund their own attendance.

This invitation will be sent to a wide international audience, but please feel free to forward it to colleagues so that we reach as broad a group of individuals and organisations as possible. The closing date for topic suggestions is 14 September 2012. Please send your ideas and suggestions to:

Petra ten Hoope-Bender – mnhstream@integrare.es

Thank you very much for your support in making the Women Deliver 2013 Conference MNH theme the best to date.

With kind regards,

Petra ten Hoope-Bender, Jeffrey Smith, Mary Nell Wegner, Claudia Morrissey, Winnie Mwebesa.

Download the pdf of this message here.