Re: https://www.hifa.org/dgroups-rss/publication-today-concerning-fetal-hear...
Dear David Southall and CHIFA colleagues,
Many thanks for notifying us of your new paper: Involving mothers in monitoring their unborn babies during labour: experience from Liberia
MacDonald et al. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth (2026) 26:564. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12884-026-08951-3
It was impressive to see the positive impacts on health outcomes of involving mothers in monitoring their unborn babies. This is potentially a strong example of how other countries, including high-income countries, can learn from the experience of a low-income country such as Liberia. As you say, "It would be great if you could consider the development of this approach to reducing stillbirths, neonatal deaths and birth asphyxia in other countries. We are happy to do all we can to help with this."
There is a wider question here about how to enhance the involvement on mothers around other aspects of child health care, and what this could mean for short-term and long-term health outcomes.
There are many examples:
The late David Morley, a leading figure in global child health and primary care, developed several innovations including the home-held child growth chart where mothers could read and interpret their child's weight curve, making mothers active partners in their child's care. Morley also led under-5 primary care clinics where mothers were taught how to prevent, recognise and treat common illnesses.
More recently, Anthony Costello has built on this work to pioneer mothers participatory groups.
The UNICEF GOBI strategy, under James Grant, empowered women to monitor growth, oral rehydration soluttion, exclusive breasfeeding and immunisation leading to the saving of countless lives. As Grant has said: “The mother is the world’s best health worker.”
(Incidentally, Grant also inspired HIFA and CHIFA, particularly his words back in 1993: "The single biggest piece of unfinished business' of the 20th century is to extend the basic benefits of modern science and medicine ... The most urgent task before us is to get medical and health knowledge to those most in need of that knowledge. Of the approximately 50 million people who were dying each year in the late 1980s, fully two thirds could have been saved through the application of that knowledge."]
The more that mothers (and fathers) can be empowered to be active participants in their child's health, the better would be the expected outcomes: physical, psychological and social.
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org