CLEVER Maternity Care

Improvement of the quality of obstetric care in midwife-led obstetric units as well as in their referral district hospitals, using a geographical catchment area approach within the health districts. 

A CLEVER way to reduce maternal and perinatal mortality and morbidity: essential respectful high quality obstetric care to birthing mothers is presented innovatively to address the local barriers in the health system, the blind spots in critical thinking during obstetric care and the preferences of the individual clients and their cultures. The package called ‘Working CLEVER’ in delivery units provides a framework for a turn-around within individual labor ward units that reinforces needed routines (including pre-referral care and referrals) and improves practical health worker skills levels through local monitoring and coaching. The package can be disseminated during master training workshops and implemented by district clinical specialist teams and other relevant local clinicians in South Africa.

C linical care

L abour ward management

E liminate barriers

V erify care

E(mergency) O(bstetric)S(umulation)T(raining) on autopilot

R espectful care

Team

• Sarie Oosthuizen

• Ute Feucht

• Bob Pattinson

• Anne-Marie Bergh

• Antonella (Toni) Silver, 

• Refilwe Malatji

• Lizzy Sithole

Sponsors

MSD for Mothers Global Giving

MSD for Mothers has established a 10-year, $500m global initiative to create a world where no woman dies giving birth.

Publications

Oosthuizen, S.J., Bergh, A.M., Grimbeek, J. and Pattinson, R.C, 2019. Midwife-led obstetric units working ‘CLEVER’: Improving perinatal outcome indicators in a South African health district. South African Medical Journal, 109(2), pp.95-101.
Pattinson, R.C., Bergh, A.M., Ameh, C., Makin, J., Pillay, Y., van den Broek, N. and Moodley, J., 2019. Reducing maternal deaths by skills-and-drills training in managing obstetric emergencies: A before-and-after observational study. South African Medical Journal, 109(4), pp.241-5.

Media articles

• The Midrand Reporter (MSD for Mothers) Work ‘clever’ to eliminate maternal deaths

Prof Robert Pattinson was interviewed telephonically to elaborate further on this project. The Prof. thanks MSD and Merck&Co for the support that they have provided in this project. Download and/or listen to the interview here.