Special Issue of International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics (IJGO) Published

Elsevier is pleased to announce publication of a Special Issue of the International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics (IJGO) – the official publication of FIGO (The International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics) – to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the Safe Motherhood Initiative. The Special Issue (Volume 98, No.3 September 2007) has been designed to tie in with the forthcoming international “Women Deliver” conference to be held between 18–20 October, in London, UK.

The September Special Issue contains numerous clinical articles and communications of particular relevance to the issues surrounding women’s health and safe motherhood, both from developed and developing countries. The issue also features articles from the successful Averting Maternal Death and Disability (AMDD) series on topics such as emergency obstetric care in low-resource settings.

The issue includes Special Communications by former FIGO President, Professor Mahmoud Fathalla, and Professor Allan Rosenfield – both leaders in the field of obstetrics and gynecology – who have spearheaded the Safe Motherhood initiative.

A new Special Editorial feature is also launched in the September issue, to introduce prominent FIGO leaders to the readership, and to highlight their special interests and visions for FIGO.

The issue also marks the first publication under the editorship of Timothy R.B. Johnson, M.D., who assumed the role in January 2007. Dr Johnson is the Bates Professor of Diseases of Women and Children, and Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA, and has served on the Editorial Board of the IJGO for several years.

The FIGO Save the Mothers Initiative was launched at the FIGO World Congress of Gynecology & Obstetrics in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1997, and many of its accomplishments have been reported in the pages of the IJGO. The Initiative has now moved on to a second more integrated phase named the “FIGO Saving Mothers & Newborns Initiative”. It utilises FIGO’s unique ability to bring together in a “twinning” process, societies from high resource countries with those in low resource countries to support their identified priorities aligned with the Ministry of Health. The commitment of FIGO to addressing the issues surrounding maternal mortality is highlighted by not only this Initiative – now active in almost a dozen countries around the world – but also by its involvement in ongoing initiatives such as the Prevention of Post Partum Hemorrhage Initiative (POPPHI), the work of its Committees on Safe Motherhood & Newborn Health, Fistula, and Women’s Sexual & Reproductive Rights, as well as its Working Group on The Prevention of Unsafe Abortion.