Late Breaking Abstracts

This presentation highlights the Hospital-to-Home (H2H) model, a community-based follow-up approach supporting high-risk newborns after NICU discharge in Uganda’s Greater Masaka region. Through CHW-led home visits, structured schedules, and integration into government systems, the program achieved a 95.8% survival rate and strong caregiver engagement. The session will share implementation strategies, district-level scale-up experiences, and evidence demonstrating how coordinated post-discharge care improves survival, growth, and continuity of care for small and vulnerable newborns.

The Access PDC project, implemented by R4D and GFF, provides a novel approach to analyze mixed health supply chain systems to uncover critical bottlenecks and guide strategic investments. Piloted in three countries, the methodology uses novel analytical approaches and visual tools to articulate access issues across availability, affordability, and quality. By engaging both the public and private sector, Access PDC provides an evidence base and supply chain understanding that previously did not exist, enabling bolder and more impactful investments. At this stage, R4D and GFF are keen to share the results from pilot countries and broader methodology to solicit feedback from the broader community as we look to further refine and approve the approach.

This presentation highlights findings from a midwife-led advocacy initiative that positioned midwives as both evidence generators and policy influencers within India’s National Midwifery Initiative. Between 2021 and 2024, the What Midwives Want campaign captured the priorities of 10,500 midwives across 28 states, while targeted capacity-building strengthened communication, leadership, and SMART Advocacy skills. These efforts resulted in the co-creation of the Midwives’ Charter of Asks and Midwifery Action Agenda, alongside direct engagement with policymakers. The efforts have contributed to ongoing midwifery reforms, including the development of rules and regulations for the specialist midwifery cadre under India’s advanced nurse practitioner model. It also built a confident leadership cohort capable of sustained policy engagement. The presentation will illustrate how practitioner-led evidence and frontline advocacy function as powerful, scalable strategies for strengthening human resources for health and improving maternal and newborn outcomes, offering transferable lessons for diverse global settings.

Respectful maternity care is essential to quality care, yet little is known about how environmental stressors shape interactions between health workers and patients. Drawing on mixed methods research from the HIGH Horizons project in Zimbabwe and South Africa (2023–2024), this study examines how extreme heat can affect the provision of respectful care in maternity wards. Data from participant observation, in depth interviews, time motion studies and surveys show that health workers can experience significant physical and mental strain in hot conditions, including exhaustion, headaches, irritability, and reduced tolerance. Providers described heat sometimes contributing to decreased communication, emotional withdrawal, and cutting corners in clinical care, increasing the likelihood of disrespectful interactions. The findings highlight extreme heat as an overlooked determinant of interpersonal care and underscore the need for climate adaptation strategies in maternity settings. Our study also demonstrates how climate change provides a useful entry point for discussing sensitive topics.