Maternal, Newborn, and Adolescent Health

23% des 15-19 ans ont au moins un enfant et la prévalence contraceptive est faible. Les filles fréquentent peu les structures de santé pour les questions sensibles de santé reproductive et font rarement appel aux services juridiques ou sociaux en cas de violation de leurs droits. Elles ne trouvent pas la confidentialité, la qualité des services qu'elles attendent ni de soutien psychosocial. Cela a une conséquence directe sur leur santé et celle de leur enfant et sur l'exercice de leurs droits.

Preclinical studies to finalize the development of the BD Odon™ Birthing Device prototype for testing in WHO study A65711

Family is the place where children find a safe and stimulating environment to grow to their full potential. Parents therefore need access to economic resources, social support and to be well equipped to care for, and manage the needs of 0-5 year olds. We are proposing to adapt and scale up the skilful parenting program to include more information on age appropriate parenting during early years and connect families to economic support (agribusiness and social protection).

We plan to offer pregnant teenagers social support, nutritional information and advise on contraception using mobile technology. We believe this is both affordable and sustainable in Low and middle income settings. A positive experience of such an intervention can then be rolled out to cover other settings since teenage pregnancy is a worldwide phenomenon. The outcomes of interest will be both physical parameters like the anthropometric measurements as well as cognitive development.The intervention will be tested in Homa Bay County, Western Kenya.

Adolescent pregnancies among continue to be a major concern in Kenya, with the proportion of teenagers who have started childbearing increasing from 2% at age 15 to 36% by age 19 in most LMICs like Kenya. Adolescents lack access to age-appropriate modern contraceptives due to lack of knowledge, costs, cultural taboos. Majority of sexually active out-of-school adolescents would go unreached through school-based programs. In Kenya adolescent girls have the lowest contraceptive use at 9%.

WHO reports that 10% of women experience mental distress during pregnancy, with the prevalence of antenatal depression reported as 7.4% in the first, 12.8% in the second and 12% in the third trimester. Individuals in low- to middle income countries are deemed to be at a greater risk with 20-40% of the women in the developing world being affected by maternal depression.

Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) is a powerful low-cost innovation that can avert 450,000 preterm deaths globally with near universal coverage, besides long-term health and socioeconomic benefits for all recipients.Our innovation – The Kangaroo Lounge Ecosystem – is a scalable model that integrates multiple systemic components critical for ensuring high coverage of high-quality & respectful KMC within a large, imperfect health system.

Kevin Osteen of Vanderbilt University Medical Center in the U.S. is developing a three-dimensional cell model that mimics the lining of the human uterus (endometrium), including different cell types and a vascular system, that can be used for affordable medium-to-high-throughput compound screening to discover new contraceptives with minimal adverse side effects. The endometrium is a multi-layered tissue that supports embryo implantation and maintains pregnancy and responds to hormonal cues to undergo renewal during each menstrual cycle.

Charles Easley of the University of Georgia Research Foundation in the U.S. is developing a complete human spermatogenesis model system for high-throughput drug screens to identify new compounds that reversibly block the maturation of sperm and could be used as male contraceptives. A simple oral male contraceptive would lessen the burden on women, particularly those who suffer from adverse side-effects of hormonal contraceptives.

Marnie Winter and Benjamin Thierry from the University of South Australia, together with Tina Bianco-Miotto, Claire Roberts, and Clare Whitehead of the University of Adelaide in Australia and the University of Toronto in Canada, will develop and test short-interfering RNAs (siRNA) high-density lipoprotein (HDL) nanocarriers for the treatment of preeclampsia. Globally, ten million women develop preeclampsia during pregnancy each year, which results in the deaths of 76,000 women and 500,000 babies; 99% of these are in developing countries.