Overview

Woman holding child. POPPHI and its partners worked to prevent postpartum hemorrhage to save thousands of women’s lives.

Photo: Siri Wood

The Prevention of Postpartum Hemorrhage Initiative (POPPHI) was a five-year project awarded to a partnership of PATH, RTI International, EngenderHealth, the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) and the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) on July 29, 2004. The project officially ended on December 31, 2009.

The POPPHI Project was part of the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID’s) broader Special Initiative to reduce postpartum hemorrhage, the single most important cause of maternal deaths worldwide, through expanded use of Active Management of the Third Stage of Labor (AMTSL). AMTSL is an intervention that reduces the incidence of postpartum hemorrhage by up to 60 percent. The Special Initiative worked to achieve the following results:

  • Expand AMTSL through non-training approaches to improve provider practice.
  • Improve the quality and availability of AMTSL at facilities.
  • Improve the quality and availability of AMTSL at the community level.
  • Make uterotonic drugs and devices available at low cost to countries.

Under the umbrella of the Special Initiative, POPPHI provided technical and managerial support for leadership and implementation of the Special Initiative. POPPHI’s role was to:

  • Assist USAID to coordinate and collaborate with all implementing partners and new partners, especially regulatory agencies in countries and partners in the private sector.
  • Support professional associations for the launch of the November 2003 joint ICM/FIGO statement on AMTSL.
  • Develop and implement a small grants program to assist local country professional associations to promote AMTSL.
  • Provide USAID Missions and Regional Bureaus with technical assistance for focused activities in countries and regionally as needed.
  • Monitor the uptake of AMTSL globally, whether funded centrally, through field support or Mission bilateral programs, or by other donor and/or host country health programs.
POPPHI was mandated to work closely with other partners of the Special Initiative, particularly Rational Pharmaceutical Management Plus (RPM Plus), HealthTech, and Access to Clinical and Community Maternal, Neonatal and Women’s Health Services (ACCESS). RPM Plus is responsible for pharmaceutical forecasting, procurement, and logistics; HealthTech is responsible for activities related to the product development of oxytocin in the Uniject™ Prefill Injection Device (Uniject is a trademark of BD); and ACCESS will promote the use of AMTSL in facilities and in the community by establishing clinical standards and guidelines, strengthening systems for provider skills and supervision, and developing training and information, education, and communication (IEC) materials.