St John's Mother & Baby Programme Donate No woman should die while giving life! Each year, 2.6 million children die before they are one month old. A further 200,000 women die during pregnancy or childbirth. Most of these deaths can be easily prevented if the women know how to minimise their risks, and if infants and mothers get the right healthcare at the right time. St John is meeting the urgent health needs of pregnant women, new mothers and infants in Malawi, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe through its Mother and Baby Programme. We encourage women to be active in getting the healthcare they need and to safely start their journey into motherhood. At the same time we extend the reach and effectiveness of the public health services. Learn more about our Mother and Baby Programme How St John is helping 1. Training and collaboration: Volunteers are recruited from their local communities. They are trained in first aid and mother and child health. Because they are community-based, local people learn skills to help themselves and their neighbours. 2. Household visits: Volunteers make door-to door visits to help families develop a birth plan, teach them about danger signs and provide advice on what to do in an emergency. Volunteers encourage women to use antenatal and postnatal services early and regularly, and make health referrals for individuals. Their partners learn to support their spouses and children, e.g. jointly planning a safe birth and saving enough money for transportation to the clinic. 3. Community health education: St John volunteers reach large numbers of community members with health education sessions to promote wider support for pregnant women and new mothers. 4. Support for local clinics: St John supplies a basic package of support based on local needs, such as scales to weigh pregnant women and newborns or blood pressure monitors. 5. Mobile outreach clinics: St John supports outreach clinics that travel to remote villages where services are not available. These makeshift clinics provide HIV testing, family planning, and checks for pregnant women, new mothers and babies. What we have achieved in the first three years 22,500 pregnant women, new mothers and their partners learnt how to minimise health risks for themselves and their babies. 7,800 men now know how crucial their support is for safe pregnancy & motherhood. 64,700 community members are aware of how they can better support pregnant women and new mothers in their neighbourhood. Six years on, our Mother and Baby programme continues to help 112,800 pregnant women, new mothers and men have enrolled in the programme and received support and advice. More than 460,000 community members have received health education on maternal and newborn health. 350,000 community members were provided with clinical consultations in hard-to-reach areas. Learn more about the impact of our Mother and Baby Programme How you can help To meet the challenge, we need to expand our activities to reach more families in Zambia, Malawi, Uganda and Zimbabwe. Learning from our current programme, we want to expand the programme with new activities, such as HIV testing and counselling, working more with expectant and new fathers, and targeting adolescents before their first pregnancy. But we need your help to be able to do this. Please support us with your donation today. Please select a donation amount (required) £30 buys one volunteer his or her St John uniform, which includes an umbrella and rubber boots for the rainy season. £50 enables St John to train more volunteers so they can visit women at home, support them through pregnancy and reduce infant deaths. £100 supports medical outreach teams to run medical services in villages with no health facility. Other Set up a regular payment Donate