On the 21 November, 2012, a new patient safety initiative, the WHO safe childbirth checklist was launched, in collaboration with WHO colleagues from the reproductive health research and maternal, newborn, child and adolescent departments. The group, with leading scientists from Harvard School of Public Health, have developed the concept of the safe childbirth checklist. Its goal is to encourage compliance with best practices around delivery.
The WHO patient safety programme has thus decided to open a virtual platform to engage with institutions, research centres, health care institutions and nongovernmental organizations, etc. concerned with mother and child care, to join WHO in pilot-testing the checklist throughout the world. WHO will primarily have a facilitating role, thus institutions should be able to design and manage their individual studies. WHO invites interested institutions to participate in the forum and contribute to knowledge generation on the most effective ways of using the checklist.
