Background

Maternal, newborn and child health issues are global, but low- and middle-income countries bear the greatest burden.

  • Each day, about 9,000 babies die within the first 28 days of life. The vast majority, more than 3 million every year, die in developing countries (1). 
  • Globally, more newborns die each year from prematurity than from any other cause. 
  • The lifetime risk of maternal death in the developing world in 2008 was 1 in 120, compared with industrialized regions with an estimated 1 in 4300. Women in sub-Saharan Africa face the highest lifetime risk—1 in 31—of maternal death (2). 
  • More than one-third of births in developing countries are not attended by skilled health personnel (3). 
  • Nearly 21,000 children under five died every day in 2010 (4).

About This Site

This site is designed entirely for researchers. Everything you find within the Mother Child Link website is provided by other researchers. If there is something you are doing that you believe would be of interest or of benefit to another research team, please share it! Registering is free to anyone working in Global Health. We welcome your input on everything.

Our goals are to:

  • Connect maternal, newborn, and child health researchers globally
  • Promote harmonization of biospecimen and data collections so we can compare across similar studies (apples-to-apples instead of apples-to-oranges)
  • Promote collaboration across studies Provide resources and best practice (e.g., templates, e-learning, etc.)
  • Provide a real-time discussion forum on issues important to you

The range of resources on this site include:

  • Registry of biospecimens and study data from MNCH studies & biobanks
  • Templates for protocols, informed consents, and SOPs
  • Guidelines E-learning modules
  • Expert input via scheduled real-time Q & A sessions
  • Latest articles from respected journals

Here is what you will find within each tab on the toolbar:

  • Home – This is your entry to the site. We plan to replace the map with pictures from the field—research teams, their sites, and the communities they serve. The Home page is your launching point to other pages within the site and to the LINK Registry, as described below.
  • About This Site – This is your roadmap to the Mother Child Link site.
  • Community – First, become a member of the Mother Child Link (it is free). Once you are a member, you are able to initiate and/or participate in discussions. Within the Community Tab are the following sub-tabs:
    • Groups – The Discussion Groups are created by the Editorial Team and website members to delve more deeply into an issue of interest, specific research protocol, or simply to ask a question. Discussion groups can be all members, or a subset of members can form their own discussion groups focused on their particular area of research or to support an existing collaboration or network within which they already belong. We only ask that all comments are kept professional and considerate.
    • Workspaces – this is a space where members can share and work together on documents, similar to wiki-page. The creator of a workspace can choose to make it an ‘open’ or ‘closed’ space. An open space is visible to all Mother Child Link visitors whereas a closed space is only visible to members who have been invited to the workspace. This allows members to collaborate on private or confidential documents.
    • Bookmarks – Where members and the Editorial Team can share links to interesting web pages.
    • Members – This is where you can find the user name/email contacts for all Mother Child Link members. When you join, please introduce yourself in the Introductions and Social Chat group discussion.
    • Blogs – Here is where you can share what you are doing with the other members. Whether it is ‘a day in the life,’ a review of an article, book or movie, or highlights from a conference you are attending, we want to hear from you!
    • Resources – This is where you will find the tools (e.g., templates for protocols, informed consents, SOPs, etc.), e-learnings, best practices, etc., to assist you and your team in whatever you need, whether it is planning, harmonizing, implementing, analyzing, or validating your research.

We have organized these resources, using category tags, according to relevance to a target population, and by resource type:

Browse by Target Population

      • Newborn and Infants
      • Child Health
      • Adolescent Health
      • Maternal/Fetal health during pregnancy
      • Labour and Delivery Care
      • Postnatal Care
      • Post Menoposal Care
      • Extended Family

Browse by Resource Type

      • Trial Design
      • Guidelines
      • Sample forms & templates (Downloadable)
      • Clinical Trial Laboratories
      • Data Management and Statistics
      • Checklists
      • Registry of Studies
      • Health Inequality
      • Evidence Based Systematic Reviews
      • Latest Publications
      • Reports
      • Study Protocols
  •  Events – We will post upcoming meetings and conferences related to maternal, newborn, or child health research and encourage our members to let us know of upcoming events so we capture everything.
  • LINK Registry - The LINK Registry is a searchable database of pregnancy and birth cohort studies from around the world. Its purpose is to promote collaboration among researchers by sharing information on participant population, study design, biospecimens and data collected in completed and ongoing studies, as well as information on planned studies. It was designed with the user in mind, and is like a ‘match.com’ for researchers. If your study includes the collection of biospecimens or data from women, their children and families, we encourage you to register your study—no study is too small. If you are planning a study that involves pregnant women, their children or families, please register your study. For future planned studies, only brief information is collected as this is not a clinical trials registration site. The more studies entered into LINK, the greater the chance that researchers will find matches in their interest areas. You will need to register with the LINK Registry before entering your study. To do so, please click on the “LINK REGISTRY” Tab and then click on “TO REGISTER.” Complete the short form and submit to receive a user name and login password so you can register your study.

Sources:
1. UNICEF http://www.childinfo.org/newborncare.html
2. UNICEF http://www.childinfo.org/maternal_mortality.html
3. UNICEF http://www.childinfo.org/delivery_care.html
4. UNICEF http://www.childinfo.org/mortality.html