20 June 2011
GE Healthcare Demonstrates the Importance of Midwives in the Pregnancy and Birthing Processes
GE Healthcare takes steps to engage midwives in the development of tools and resources that can further the midwifery practice and improve maternal and infant care around the world
Durban, SOUTH AFRICA; June 20, 2011: Midwives have a substantial impact on the wellbeing of women and newborns. GE Healthcare is celebrating the role midwives play in the birthing experience at the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) 2011 Congress on June 19 – 23 in Durban, South Africa.
To better partner with this vital community of midwives, GE Healthcare will launch a focus group to better understand the needs of midwives, and to develop technologies that will enable them to better serve their patients. At ICM, GE Healthcare will seek nominations of midwifes to be a part of this focus group to ensure their voice is captured and the true needs are understood.
“GE Healthcare is focused on supporting the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals (MDG), specifically MDG4: reducing child mortality and MDG5: improving maternal health. A key success factor is the role of a skilled health professional, specifically midwives,” stated Carrie Eglinton Manner, General Manager of GE Healthcare’s Maternal Infant Care business. “Being a part of ICM is important as we see how our business can partner with midwives to develop tools and resources to improve maternal and infant health in both urban and rural communities.”
In some countries, midwives don’t have access to medical necessities that could save lives. Knowing that women around the world rely on the expertise of midwives for both prenatal and neonatal care, GE Healthcare is working to develop and provide midwives with the tools they need to deliver the best possible care – for both mothers and infants.
“Our rural health strategy is driven by our technology and innovation. We have set our focus to design healthcare equipment that can address the needs of poor women in remote areas who are the least likely to receive adequate healthcare,” stated Janeen Uzzell, Director of Global Programs for GE’s healthymagination initiative. “We are preparing evidence-based studies that will shift global standards and provide more affordable and effective treatments, establish training for healthcare workers, and meet the key needs of pregnancy, labor and delivery, and postnatal care in the most rural environments.”
EglintonManner added that “the World Health Organization estimates a global shortage of 4.3 million health workers. The need for skilled midwives is incredible as they play such a critical role in the lives of women and babies around the world. GE Healthcare knows that every midwife counts and wants to help support them in their work to improve healthcare.”
In addition to gathering feedback on potential new product developments targeted at addressing rural health needs and the midwifery practice, GE Healthcare is showcasing a number of current maternal and infant care equipment, including:
- Giraffe Shuttle* eliminates the need to transfer a baby from bed-to-bed. In combination with the Giraffe or Panda bed, the Giraffe Shuttle helps reduce the potential for clinical problems that can result from interrupted patient thermal regulation, patient touch, handling and movement, potentially challenging physiological stability when transferring babies to and from a transport incubator.
- Panda* Warmer for labor and delivery helps keep healthy babies healthy, provides integrated resuscitation and SPO2 options, allowing caregivers to spend more time with the patient.
- Lullaby1* LED Phototherapy System is a unique device for treating jaundice in newborns. It’s simple, flexible design may improve workflow efficiency and help keep costs down.
- Lullaby1* Incubator XP is designed to help clinicians manage the complex needs of fragile infants with its advanced microenvironment, which operates simply and safely.
- Lullaby1* Warmer helps clinicians provide a high quality of care for all newborns and infants. Designed with attention to details that are essential to providing babies with a warm, comforting environment.
- Corometrics* 170 & 259 maternal/fetal monitoring delivers quality, dependable antepartum and labor delivery room monitoring.
- Mini Telemetry1 offers a simple and complete wireless monitoring solution for efficient data gathering for improved workflow and a more comfortable birthing experience.
- Vscan* helps detect fetal heartbeat, assess bleeding in pregnancy, and determines the baby’s position during prenatal examinations in the latter part of pregnancy and before delivery.
- Embrace Infant Warmer1,2, designed by a non-profit organization called Embrace, is a low-cost (~$200 USD) warming device that resembles a sleeping bag with a wax pouch that radiates warmth and can keep an infant warm for up to six hours.
About GE Healthcare
GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our broad expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, drug discovery, biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies, performance improvement and performance solutions services help our customers to deliver better care to more people around the world at a lower cost. In addition, we partner with healthcare leaders, striving to leverage the global policy change necessary to implement a successful shift to sustainable healthcare systems.
Our “healthymagination” vision for the future invites the world to join us on our journey as we continuously develop innovations focused on reducing costs, increasing access and improving quality around the world. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE). Worldwide, GE Healthcare employees are committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries. For more information about GE Healthcare, visit our website at www.gehealthcare.com.
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NOTES TO EDITORS
1Not commercially available in all markets; not cleared or approved by the U.S. FDA.
2Not commercially available at this time
*Trademark of General Electric Company
