The Safe Delivery App at Women Deliver

This week, more than 5000 world leaders, advocates, policymakers, journalists, researchers, and leaders of corporate companies will gather in Copenhagen for the world’s largest conference on women’s and girls’ rights, Women Deliver. The conference will focus in particular on how to implement the Sustainable Development Goals so they matter most for girls and women, with a specific focus on health.

The Safe Delivery App – developed by Maternity Foundation in collaboration with the University of Copenhagen and the University of Southern Denmark – will be featured at Women Deliver as an example of how a partnership-based innovation can help end maternal and newborn mortality. The app supports health workers by providing them with the skills to handle childbirth complications. It incorporates videos and step-by-step instructions on how to handle various acute problems before, during and after childbirth.

Women Deliver has selected the app to be presented as one of the most innovative apps contributing to women’s global health during the so-called Appy Hour.

“We’re honoured that The Safe Delivery App has been designated one of the 10 most innovative apps for improving women’s global health. The app has already produced excellent results in Ethiopia, and we’re delighted that it’s now being rolled out across Africa and Southeast Asia with partners such as NGOs, governments and midwifery organizations,” says Anna Frellsen, CEO of Maternity Foundation.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Kristian Jensen is proud that Denmark is helping lead the fight against maternal mortality in developing countries.

“In the fight against maternal mortality, we need to innovate, we need to exploit modern technology and we need to think in partnerships. So it’s great that a collaboration between Maternity Foundation and the country’s leading universities has led to the development of an app that’s saving lives. It can’t be right that 800 women are dying every day in connection with childbirth and pregnancy. Ninety-nine per cent of these deaths are in developing countries, and the vast majority could be avoided if there was access to basic health services,” says Kristian Jensen.

Maternity Foundation has made a commitment to UN’s Every Woman Every Child to reach 10,000 health workers with the app by end 2017 and thereby ensure a safer birth for 1 million women.

The app is developed with the financial support of, among others, MSD for Mothers and The Obel Family Foundation.

Are you joining Women Deliver? Learn more about the Safe Delivery App here:

Monday 16 May from 13.45 to 15.00 at Bella Center: Maternity Foundation, in partnership with the UN, MSD for Mothers, Philips and others, will be holding an event entitled Scaling Innovations to Save the Lives of Mothers and Babies. Here, The Safe Delivery App will be presented as one of a number of global innovations within maternal and newborn health. HRH Crown Princess Mary of Denmark, a patron of both Maternity Foundation and the Women Deliver conference, will be attending the event.

To register (conference attendees only), please visit: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/scaling-innovations-to-save-the-lives-of-mothers-and-babies-registration-23475003367

Tuesday 17 May from 17.30 to 18.30 at Bella Center: The Safe Delivery App will be presented as one of 10 global apps during “Appy Hour”, which will be jointly hosted by Women Deliver and MSD for Mothers.

Or visit us in the Exhibition Hall at booth 80!

For press enquiries:

Emilie Selin, communication adviser, Molecule Consultancy

E-mail: ebs@moleculeconsultancy.com

Tel.: +45 26 11 41 04

Lise Knudsen, head of communications, Maternity Foundation

E-mail: lknu@maternity.dk

Tel.: +45 22 11 70 52