Maternal and Child Health Journal
Volume 19, Issue 6, June 2015
http://link.springer.com/journal/10995/19/6/page/1

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Commentary
New Dialogue for the Way Forward in Maternal Health: Addressing Market Inefficiencies
Katharine McCarthy, Saumya Ramarao, Hannah Taboada
Abstract
Despite notable progress in Millennium Development Goal (MDG) five, to reduce maternal deaths three-quarters by 2015, deaths due to treatable conditions during pregnancy and childbirth continue to concentrate in the developing world. Expanding access to three effective and low-cost maternal health drugs can reduce preventable maternal deaths, if available to all women. However, current failures in markets for maternal health drugs limit access to lifesaving medicines among those most in need. In effort to stimulate renewed action planning in the post-MDG era, we present three case examples from other global health initiatives to illustrate how market shaping strategies can scale-up access to essential maternal health drugs. Such strategies include: sharing intelligence among suppliers and users to better approximate and address unmet need for maternal health drugs, introducing innovative financial strategies to catalyze otherwise unattractive markets for drug manufacturers, and employing market segmentation to create a viable and sustainable market. By building on lessons learned from other market shaping interventions and capitalizing on opportunities for renewed action planning and partnership, the maternal health field can utilize market dynamics to better ensure sustainable and equitable distribution of essential maternal health drugs to all women, including the most marginalized

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Methodological Notes
Post-disaster Health Indicators for Pregnant and Postpartum Women and Infants
Marianne E. Zotti, Amy M. Williams, Etobssie Wako
Abstract
United States (U.S.) pregnant and postpartum (P/PP) women and their infants may be particularly vulnerable to effects from disasters. In an effort to guide post-disaster assessment and surveillance, we initiated a collaborative process with nationwide expert partners to identify post-disaster epidemiologic indicators for these at-risk groups. This 12 month process began with conversations with partners at two national conferences to identify critical topics for P/PP women and infants affected by disaster. Next we hosted teleconferences with a 23 member Indicator Development Working Group (IDWG) to review and prioritize the topics. We then divided the IDWG into three population subgroups (pregnant women, postpartum women, and infants) that conducted at least three teleconferences to discuss the proposed topics and identify/develop critical indicators, measures for each indicator, and relevant questions for each measure for their respective population subgroup. Lastly, we hosted a full IDWG teleconference to review and approve the indicators, measures, and questions. The final 25 indicators and measures with questions (available online) are organized by population subgroup: pregnant women (indicators = 9; measures = 24); postpartum women (indicators = 10; measures = 36); and infants (indicators = 6; measures = 30). We encourage our partners in disaster-affected areas to test these indicators and measures for relevancy and completeness. In post-disaster surveillance, we envision that users will not use all indicators and measures but will select ones appropriate for their setting. These proposed indicators and measures promote uniformity of measurement of disaster effects among U.S. P/PP women and their infants and assist public health practitioners to identify their post-disaster needs.