Involving men to improve maternal and newborn health: A systematic review of the effectiveness of interventions

The objective of thsi review was to determine the effect of interventions to engage men during pregnancy, childbirth and infancy on mortality and morbidity, as well as effects on mechanisms by which male involvement is hypothesised to influence mortality and morbidity outcomes: home care practices, care-seeking, and couple relationships. Findings suggets that interventions to engage men in maternal and newborn health can increase care-seeking, improve home care practices, and support more equitable couple communication and decision-making for maternal and newborn health. These findings support engaging men as a health promotion strategy, although evidence gaps remain around effects on mortality and morbidity. Findings also indicate that interventions to increase male involvement should be carefully designed and implemented to mitigate potential harmful effects on couple relationship dynamics.

Countdown to 2030: tracking progress towards universal coverage for reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health

To achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, the rate of decline in prevalence of maternal and child mortality, stillbirths, and stunting among children younger than 5 years of age needs to accelerate considerably compared with progress since 2000. Countdown to 2030 is investing in improvements in measurement in several areas, such as quality of care and effective coverage, nutrition programmes, adolescent health, early childhood development, and evidence for conflict settings, and is prioritising its regional networks to enhance local analytic capacity and evidence for RMNCH.

Institutional setting and wealth gradients in cesarean delivery rates: Evidence from six developing countries

This study examined wealth-related variations in cesarean rates in six lower- and upper-middle income countries: the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Guatemala, Jordan, Pakistan, and the Philippines. Large wealth-related variations in the mode of delivery across government and private hospitals suggest the need for well-developed guidelines and standards to achieve a more appropriate selection of cases for cesarean delivery.

The Effect of the Removal of User Fees for Delivery at Public Health Facilities on Institutional Delivery in Urban Kenya

This study determines the effect of the policy to remove user fees on institutional delivery in a population-based sample of women from urban Kenya. Multivariate findings show that women were significantly more likely to deliver at a public facility as compared to a private facility after the policy. Among the poor, the results show that poor women were significantly more likely to deliver in a public facility compared to home or a private facility after policy change.

Long-term risk of diabetes in women at varying durations after gestational diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis with more than 2 million women

This study aims to investigate the impact of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) on the long-term risks of diabetes in women with prior GDM, including the effect at different time periods after GDM. Thirty cohort studies with 2,626,905 pregnant women were included. Women with prior GDM had 7.76-fold (95% confidence intervals: 5.10–11.81) unadjusted pooled risk of diabetes as compared with women without GDM, whilst the adjusted risk was 17.92-fold (16.96–18.94). The adjusted ORs of GDM for diabetes among women at <3, ≥3 – <6 and ≥6 – <10 years after GDM were 5.37 (3.51–9.34), 16.55 (16.08–17.04) and 8.20 (4.53–14.86), respectively. Women with prior GDM had substantially increased risk of diabetes, with the risk highest during the 3–6 years after GDM.

Forum for University Nursing Deans in South Africa (FUNDISA) meeting – 26-27 October 2017, University of Cape Town (UCT), Cape Town, South Africa

2-day mini conference for the South African Regional Faculty 2015

Interview with Sr Brenda Wright, clinical research nurse-turned book author/editor

Skills-sharing workshop held for Nigerian Research Nurses

GRN events 2017

Seminar presented by the EQUATOR Network's Dr Jen de Beyer from the Centre for Statistics in Medicine, University of Oxford - 11th Sept 2017

Introduction of GRN to nursing staff at hospitals, clinics and a nursing college in Mpumalanga Province, South Africa – 26/29 September 2017

Dr Elize Pietersen, GRN coordinator, delivers two presentations at the International Collaboration for Community Health Nursing Research (ICCHNR) – 20-22 Sept 2017

GRN workshop held with nurses from 4 African countries at Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town – 11 September 2017

GRN exhibits at the Road to Nursing research conference, Cape Town – 25 August 2017

Blended-learning for Clinical research nurses

Clinical research nurses are busy people! The Global Health Network Training Centre is therefore designed to offer snappy, practical 'how to' training courses that can be completed within 60-90 minutes, and more specialised modules can be taken over several sessions. However because some nurses don't find it easy to access a computer,

Joby George RN RM presents at the 66th Annual Conference of American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

Being a Phase 1 Clinical Research Nurse

Sr Cordelia Leisegang and Sr Brenda Wright from the University of Cape Town's Collaborating Centre for Optimising Antimalarial Therapy (CCOAT) star a video to explain to future healthy volunteers what they may expect from being in a phase 1 clinical trial.

Seminar Recording: Being A Clinical Research Nurse

A Prospective Cause of Death Classification System for Maternal Deaths in Low and Middle-Income Countries: Results from the Global Network Maternal Newborn Health Registry

This study describe the causes of maternal death in a population-based cohort in six low and middle-income countries using a standardized, hierarchical, algorithmic cause of death (COD) methodology. Findings suggest that the major maternal COD in the Global Network sites were hemorrhage, pregnancy-related infection and preeclampsia/eclampsia. This system could allow public health programs in low and middle-income countries to generate transparent and comparable data for maternal COD across time or regions.