Women themselves can be life savers if they get together to plan and prioritise.

We’ve been working with a world-class team at UCL to analyse the evidence from clinical studies where women came together within their community to identify problems they have in pregnancy and childbirth. Then the women themselves devised strategies for tackling these, with the help of a lay local facilitator. This short film, produced by UCL, shows one of the women’s groups in Malawi.

This research showed that the community groups work. When a third of pregnant women become active in these groups, there is a 55% drop in death rates. This profoundly important finding was published in the Lancet, and further information can be found at http://www.womenandchildrenfirst.org.uk/news/493-17-05-2013-new-evidence-to-save-mothers-lives.