TY - JOUR T1 - Saving Mothers, Giving Life: A Systems Approach to Reducing Maternal and Perinatal Deaths in Uganda and Zambia JF - Global Health: Science and Practice JO - GLOB HEALTH SCI PRACT SP - S1 LP - S5 DO - 10.9745/GHSP-D-19-00037 VL - 7 IS - Supplement 1 AU - Lois Quam AU - Angeli Achrekar AU - Robert Clay Y1 - 2019/03/11 UR - http://www.ghspjournal.org/content/7/Supplement_1/S1.abstract N2 - The 5-year public-private partnership boldly addressed maternal mortality in Uganda and Zambia using a systems approach at the district level to avoid delays in women seeking, reaching, and receiving timely, quality services. This supplement provides details on the Saving Mothers, Giving Life partnership and approach, including the model, impact, costs, and sustainability.Despite all the gains of the last 30 years in global health and development, maternal mortality is often regarded as an intractable problem. Complications during pregnancy, childbirth, or in the 42 days after birth were the leading causes of death among women of reproductive age when Saving Mothers, Giving Life was initiated and remain so today Saving Mothers, Giving Life initiative and remain so today.1 At the outset of Saving Mothers, nearly 30 women died every hour, 800 women died each day, and an estimated 287,000 women died each year due to pregnancy- and childbirth-related causes.1 An additional 15–20 million women suffered debilitating infections and disabilities annually because of pregnancy.1 Co-infection with HIV was increasingly one of the most common causes of pregnancy-associated deaths in Africa (ranging from 15% to 40%).1 Yet mothers were dying for reasons that were well understood and almost always preventable, even in the poorest countries. Interventions to lower maternal mortality often focused on a single cause, delivered in a fragmented manner, or unsupported by evidence. Moreover, interventions utilized a facility-based approach alone where infrastructure was weak or not available. Despite having global champions for child survival, HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other health and development issues, maternal mortality had not risen to become an equal political priority.On June 1, 2012, the Saving Mothers, Giving Life initiative was launched. It was a concerted response by the U.S. Government through President Barack Obama's Global Health Initiative, with its focus on women and … ER -