This World Patient Safety Day (WPSD) on 17th September 2021 is dedicated to safe maternal and newborn care in acknowledgment of the significant burden of avoidable harm women and newborns are exposed to due to unsafe care, particularly around the time of childbirth. This is especially important in the context of disruption of health services due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has further compounded the situation. 

Therefore, as we look to build back better post Covid-19, WPSD is a moment to look at how our future citizens first experience the health system and start with the very beginning of life itself by reforming antenatal and post-natal care for the better. We believe that one of the best thing societies can do for itself is to give every child a sure start by ensuring that all mothers have a fundamental right to safe, quality, accessible, acceptable, affordable, and equitable antenatal and postnatal healthcare. 

Further, with an Afghan mother giving birth on a C-17 cargo plane, WPSD is a moment to reflect on the impact of the tremendous social upheavals experienced by many over the last two decades resulting from the large-scale health emergencies that conflict and natural environmental disasters unleashed. Many pregnant women who once lived in stable communities and expected to receive high quality antenatal and post-natal care are now exposed to high risk living within refugee and internally displaced populations.

The last two decades have also seen a rise in another at-risk group of pregnant women - women in prison.  Whether related or not to the economic and social upheavals, the number of women in prison increased by 53% with the WHO estimating that there may be 24,000 – 60,000 incarcerated pregnant women worldwide. These women often lack access to antenatal and postnatal care at the same safety, quality, and acceptability levels as their host communities. When combined, these two situations have produced a perfect storm in maternal and new-born mortality and morbidity with most of this being avoidable.

In response to this and to mark WPSD, IAPO is delighted to host this webinar to highlight this issue and  discuss some of the changes needed in institutional, international law, policy, practice and standards framework to bring about safe and respectable maternal and new-born care as a fundamental right in for women in prisons and refugee camps. 

Speakers: