Helping Babies Survive and Empowering Midwives and Nurses to Provide Quality Newborn Care.

* Abbreviations: CPD — : continuing professional development HBB — : Helping Babies Breathe ICM — : International Confederation of Midwives MoH — : ministry of health Women and their newborns deserve quality and coordinated care at the time of birth, a vulnerable time when most preventable deaths occur.1 Midwives can provide up to 87% of maternal and newborn care, and when advanced care is needed, they can refer to a medical doctor.2 It is vital for the labor and birth health provider team to work collaboratively, communicate effectively, and maintain competence, especially in the rare cases in which basic emergency obstetric and newborn care is needed. In some countries, traditional basic emergency obstetric and newborn care training has been replaced with shorter and less resource-intensive Helping Babies Survive and Helping Mothers Survive training, developed by the American Academy of Pediatrics and Jhpiego, respectively. The International Confederation of Midwives (ICM), in partnership with national midwives’ associations, has been implementing projects using Helping Babies Survive and Helping Mothers Survive for many years, most recently in the 10 000 (2014–2016) and 50 000 (2018–2020) Happy Birthdays projects, supported by Laerdal Global Health, the American Academy of Pediatrics, Latter-day Saint Charities, and other stakeholders. More than 30 000 midwives from Malawi, Zambia, Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Rwanda were trained, with the ultimate goal of saving maternal and newborn lives … Address correspondence to Florence West, PhD, International Confederation of Midwives, Koninginnegracht 60, 2514 AE The Hague, Netherlands. E-mail: f.west{at}internationalmidwives.org