Despite progress, maternal and child mortality rates are still unacceptably high around the world — especially on the day of birth — which accounts for over 20 percent of deaths of children under the age of five. The vast majority of these deaths occur in low-resource countries. Most of these deaths are preventable.
Laerdal Global Health (LGH) was established as the non-profit sister company to Laerdal Medical dedicated to helping save lives of mothers and newborns in low resource settings. With the support of our global partnerships and alliances, LGH develops simple, affordable products and programs to help train and equip birth attendants.
Our training and therapy products have been adopted and utilized in more than 95 low and middle income countries. With the support of our partners, more than 500.000 birth attendants have been trained to be lifesavers. By 2020, Laerdal Global Health aims to help save 400.000 lives, every year.
Regina’s baby was not breathing when he was born.
Her midwife, Monica, had been trained in the Helping Babies Breathe and Helping Mother's Survive programs. Once Monica resuscitated the baby, she realized the mother was in trouble. Recognizing
the signs of postpartum hemorrhage, she removed the remaining placenta and was able to stop
the bleeding. Both Regina and her baby survived.
When Minara went into labour, she called for birth attendant Jubayda to help - the baby was in breech position and in distress. Jubayda did all she could but Minara’s baby was born lifeless. Trained in the Helping Babies Breathe program, Jubayda was able to put her new skills to use. Minara's baby Shifa survived.
Danieli was born with meconium and did not breathe. The young nurse used what she had learned in the Helping Babies Breathe course. She dried and stimulated the baby and used the Penguin suction to remove the meconium. But Danieli still did not breathe. She quickly cut the cord and moved him to the resuscitation station where she used the bag-mask and resuscitation monitor. Some minutes later, Danieli began to breathe by himself.
After a long childbirth, Naomi gave birth to a baby boy, He was not breathing. The midwife, Faith, had been trained in Helping Babies Breathe. Immediately, she took the baby to the resuscitation station and began bag and mask ventilations. Within minutes, Naomi heard her baby's first cry.
After Ester gave birth to her son, she began to bleed heavily. Ester feared for her life. Her midwife, Musama, check the uterus and found that it had not contracted. He massaged the uterus and administered oxytocin. With the nearest hospital six hours away, Ester's life was in her midwife's hands. If he had not been well trained in Helping Mothers' Survive, Ester would not be alive today.
