The purpose of the Global Network for Women's and Children's Health Research is to develop and test feasible, sustainable interventions to improve the outcome of women and children and to develop research capacity in resource-poor settings. Because most of the sites have weak health care systems, unacceptably high rates of maternal and neonatal mortality and lack birth and death registries, they lack precise data on outcomes and measures of care. Information from a vital registry system will allow the Global Network to document maternal and neonatal mortality, design trials to address the major causes of poor outcome, assess the outcome of our interventions, and ultimately disseminate the results as the basis of public health policy.
A sub-study to the Maternal Newborn Health Registry will be conducted to understand the prevalence of COVID-19 among pregnant women, the association between COVID-19 and pregnancy outcomes, and the Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of pregnant women related to COVID-19 and its prevention during pregnancy. Women who consent to participation in the MNHR COVID sub-study will provide a blood specimen at or near delivery to be tested for COVID-19 antibodies. Four Global Network sites (Guatemala, Bangladesh, Nagpur India and Pakistan) will also collect and analyze blood specimen from participants during antenatal care visits.
