Ending Preventable Stillbirths: Introducing a scorecard to measure progress against global targets

7/23/2019

Susannah Hopkins Leisher MA, MSC, MPHIL

Susannah Hopkins Leisher MA, MSC, MPHIL
Susannah Hopkins Leisher spent over 20 years working on global poverty alleviation, including ten years based in Vietnam, where she was for five years the Vietnam country representative for Oxfam Hong Kong, as well as consulting for a wide range of agencies including the UN, DFID, the World Bank and various NGOs. She is co-chair of the Stillbirth Advocacy Working Group, a board member of the International Stillbirth Alliance, and an honorary fellow of the Mater Research Institute, University of Queensland. She is currently a third-year doctoral student in epidemiology at Columbia University with a National Institutes of Health National Research Service Award. Her research interest is stillbirth,and perinatal mortality generally, including the overlap between stillbirth and inequity, reducing unexplained stillbirths, the global socio-political environment for stillbirth prevention, and translating research into practice. Ms. Leisher lives in New Jersey, USA, with her husband and three sons, and is also the mother of Wilder Daniel who was stillborn at full term in 1999 with no cause found.

Group B Strep International

7/24/2019 08:02:58 am

Thank you, Susannah, for your presentation on behalf of the Stillbirth Advocacy Working Group and for your ongoing work to prevent stillbirth worldwide!

Susannah Leisher

7/24/2019 08:26:21 am

So pleased to be a part of this wonderful conference!

Dr. Macey

7/24/2019 10:58:01 am

Great data so far. Interesting implications

7/24/2019 11:03:55 am

Thanks for the comment, Dr Macey. Yes, the data are interesting--and sobering. Beyond that, we feel one of the big messages from our scorecard is that there are important areas in which the data are lacking, such as which countries have set within-country stillbirth rate targets to reduce equity gaps, and whether there are any countries which have identified reduction of stillbirth-associated stigma as an area of work.

Thanks so much for watching!

Marti Perhach

7/24/2019 09:38:44 pm

It will be interesting to see if Australia emerges as the leader in reaching those goals with all of the extraordinary effort by their Senate Select Committee on Stillbirth Research and Education.*

Which other countries are setting a good example?

*https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Stillbirth_Research_and_Education

7/29/2019 11:57:17 am

Hi Marti,
Many thanks for your comment. Yes, Australia is a clear leader in terms of seeking to achieve the aims of the Ending preventable stillbirths Call to action, thanks to hard work by national champions such as Vicki Flenady at the Centre for Stillbirth Research Excellence of the University of Queensland. Ireland is a leader in setting bereavement standards for care after stillbirth. India, with an enormous stillbirth burden, has a number of subnational champions for stillbirth reduction. Champions in Ethiopia have developed their own version of the scorecard to track progress against the call to action. A number of other countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Pacific have specific strengths in individual components of the call to action, and there are also standouts in terms of countries that are notable for lagging progress, including the United States. Conferences like this one are so important for bringing individuals together to raise awareness of where progress still needs to be made!

Gregory Saleem

7/25/2019 11:46:23 am

How can data from my region, or regions of fellow colleagues, be added to the scorecard?

Do you collect data mainly from medical facilities, governmental agencies, individuals, etc.?

7/29/2019 11:49:30 am

Hi Gregory,
Thanks so much for your comment! Currently we are focused on the "global" scorecard which amalgamates data from about 70 "high-burden" countries in African and Asia that are being tracked through the Every Newborn global mechanism. However, there are several ways that data from other regions could be incorporated. First, we will be revising the scorecard at the end of 2019 and will experiment with adding columns to reflect data from other countries and regions not currently included (such as the Caribbean). Second, groups in several countries are already working on their own versions of the scorecard, for instance in Ethiopia. I am working with a group in Australia on a version for high-income countries. If you are interested in finding out more, or being connected with others from your region who are working on the scorecard, please feel free to email me at [email protected] and let me know what country/region you are interested in.

In terms of where we get the data, it is all from global data collection mechanisms. If you got the pdf of our scorecard in the virtual conference bag, you can see that one of the columns of the detailed scorecard lists our data sources. All the sources are governmental which of course has its own issues!

Many thanks again for your interest,
Susannah

7/29/2019 12:02:09 pm

Many thanks again on behalf of the Stillbirth Advocacy Working Group for your interest in our global scorecard for ending preventable stillbirths! For more information on our group or the scorecard, please feel free to email me at [email protected] We welcome researchers, bereaved family members, practitioners, policy makers, and others interested in using advocacy as a tool for ending preventable stillbirths and improving the quality of post-stillbirth care. Many thanks again to Group B Strep for the invitation to join this conference!

-Susannah Leisher

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