MNHU > Making It Happen
Making It Happen
The ‘Making It Happen’ Programme (MIH) aims to reduce maternal and newborn mortality and morbidity by increasing availability and improving the quality of Skilled Birth Attendance (SBA) and Emergency Obstetric and New-born Care (EmONC). Based on the interim analyses of the first phase of the programme, it is estimated that during the lifetime of Making It Happen:
- 9,586 maternal lives will be saved
- 191,720 maternal disabilities will be avoided
- 10,490 newborn lives will be saved
- 12,690 stillbirths will be averted.
Facility based records will provide baseline numbers and data throughout the duration of the programme on the number of women attending participating facilities for emergency maternal care and childbirth and the number of maternal deaths and newborn deaths and stillbirths. This data will be used to calculate the number of lives saved by the programme intervention.
Additionally, by building the capacity of over 17,000 healthcare workers to provide emergency maternal and newborn care, including the training of a cadre of 1,025 national Facilitators or ‘Master Trainers’ in participating countries, the benefits of the programme will be sustained beyond the immediate funding period and original facilities.
Between 2009 and 2011, LSTM implemented the first phase of the Making it Happen Programme (MiH) by improving the competence of healthcare workers to provide emergency obstetric and newborn care. MiH phase 1 operated in 5 countries (Kenya, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, India and Bangladesh), working in close collaboration with the Ministries of Health to build capacity of national trainers and researchers to ensure sustainability and results. The MiH programme interventions included:
1) the application of a new evidence based competency based ‘skills and drill’ training in Emergency Obstetric and early Newborn Care (the EOC&NC training package) using proven adult education techniques
2) the introduction of supportive supervision
3) Improved data collection and use at health care facility level.
Making it Happen Phase 1 (2009 – 2011)
Under MiH Phase 1:
- Over 2000 health workers were trained and supported in the provision of emergency obstetric and newborn care;
- There was an observed 25-50% reduction in the maternal case fatality rate and a 15% reduction in the stillbirth rate at participating health care facilities.
Following this success, all 5 participating countries in MiH 1 have requested scale up and an additional 6 countries (Tanzania, South Africa, Malawi, Ghana, Nigeria and Pakistan) have declared their interest in and commitment to Making it Happen and have been selected to develop the MiH programme in their own countries within the context of wider health system development programmes.
Making it Happen (Phase 2) (2012 – 2015)
MiH Phase 2 has five outputs:
Output 1: Increased health care provider capacity to provide Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care (EmONC)
Output 2: Increased availability of EmONC for mothers and babies
Output 3: Strengthened accountability for results with increased transparency
Output 4: Strengthened Capacity to sustain improvements in MNH service delivery
Output 5: Evidence generated by programme disseminated in order to inform national, regional and global agenda.
Between 2012 and 2015 the MiH Programme will be delivered in 11 countries: eight in Sub Saharan Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Republic of South Africa, Sierra Leone, Ghana and Nigeria) and three countries in Asia (India, Bangladesh and Pakistan)
The Maternal and Newborn Health Unit (MNHU) at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) serves as the global coordinating centre for the MiH Programme.
Download our ‘Making It Happen’ leaflet for further information.