2021 Motherhood Collective Impact Programme Report

Investing in maternal health means investing in a better future for everyone. However, maternal care is often undervalued and under-resourced. Maternal health is often not considered a priority, and this has been further brought to light in the current pandemic. The difficult challenges faced by women during the pandemic have been further complicated with the lack of information available on the safety of medicines and vaccines for women and newborns.

In 2021, our aim was to create further proof that the only way to make lasting change in maternal health is for diverse stakeholders - women, healthcare professionals, industry, academics, public health organizations, governments and beyond - to truly collaborate on developing sustainable solutions around a shared goal.

All society has been impacted since the unprecedented health crisis, with additional challenges faced by women, newborns, and healthcare professionals. In the face of this new reality, Safe Motherhood Week 2021 continued to highlight the impact of Covid-19 on maternal health and reproductive care, as well as the need to reduce the information gap on the safety of medication during pregnancy and breastfeeding.

Our goals were twofold: 1) to demonstrate that maternal and newborn care is still suboptimal, further brought to light by the pandemic; 2) to raise awareness of the information gap on the safety of medicines before and during pregnancy and breastfeeding.

Our activities this year were inspired by the survey launched during Safe Motherhood Week 2020 to understand women’s and HCP needs and preferences in reproductive care in the face of this new reality. To be able to prioritise gaps and opportunities in maternal care that COVID-19 brings and to be able to make recommendations to the maternal health community. The survey generated +500 responses to date from all over the world, and the many emotional stories that women shared about their care experiences during COVID show clear evidence for the need for maternal and neonatal care to be taken more seriously as a global priority.

Maternal Health Synapse now provides users with an enhanced user experience at different levels and grew over 100 new organisations, over 20 new initiatives and approx. 400 maternal health events in comparison to 2020.

In 2022, we will continue our objective to show the value of collaborating across diverse stakeholders and geographic borders to sustainably solve maternal and neonatal health issues. We will be further exploring where MCIP can play a role in maternal health in a post-Covid world. Advocating for equitable access to maternal healthcare will be a guiding principle this year.