Background
Each
year more than 500,000 women die due to complications of pregnancy and
childbirth, 99% of these deaths are in developing countries. Maternal
mortality is the leading cause of death for women of reproductive age. The leading cause of maternal mortality is obstetrical
hemorrhage. A woman can bleed to death in two hours or less, and in
rural areas, where hospitals may be days away, this
leaves little hope for women suffering from hemorrhage.
About LifeWrapTM
The
LifeWrap is a simple, neoprene and Velcro lower body pressure suit, used to treat
shock, resuscitate, stabilize and prevent further bleeding in women
with obstetric hemorrhage.
LifeWrap is also known as the non-pneumatic anti shock garment (NASG).
After
a simple training session, anyone can put the garment on a bleeding
woman. Once her bleeding is controlled, she can be safely transported
to a referral hospital for emergency obstetrical care.
How does the
LifeWrap work?
When in shock, the brain, heart and lungs are deprived of oxygen because blood accumulates in the lower abdomen and legs.
The
LifeWrap reverses shock by returning blood to the heart, lungs and
brain. This restores the woman's consciousness, pulse and blood
pressure.
Additionally, the LifeWrap decreases bleeding from the parts of the body compressed under it.
LifeWrap Research
Dr. Suellen Miller,
Director of Safe Motherhood Programs
 Dr.
Miller holds joint faculty appointments at the University of
California, San Francisco (UCSF), School of Medicine, Department of
Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Health Sciences and in the
School of Public Health, Maternal and Child Health Program, University
of California, Berkeley. Prior to joining the Berkeley faculty in l997,
she was a PEW Health Policy Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the
Institute for Health Policy Studies, UCSF School of Medicine.
Dr.
Miller is an experienced maternal health clinician with extensive
experience in international Reproductive Health in Africa, Asia, and
Latin America. She is currently conducting MacArthur Foundation funded studies of the LifeWrap to treat maternal
hemorrhage in Nigeria, Mexico and Egypt, an NIH/Gates Foundation funded clinical trial of the LifeWrap in Zambia and Zimbabwe, and with Pathfinder International, a continuum of care for post-partum hemorrhage project in India. The author of many articles
and book chapters, she is co--author of the Hesperian Foundation's "A
Book For Midwives," winner of the American College of Nurse Midwives'
2006 Notable Book Award.
In
2004, Suellen Miller, Dr. Paul Hensleigh, and their Egyptian colleagues,
conducted a pilot study at four large hospitals in Egypt. Study
participants who suffered severe obstetrical hemorrhage and shock were
treated according to standard management or standard management AND the
LifeWrap.
There was a 50% decrease in bleeding
for the women treated with standard care AND the LifeWrap. 75% fewer
women in the LifeWrap died
or had severe maternal morbidity.
These
preliminary results are encouraging. However, larger studies over
longer periods of time are needed. These studies would provide the
scientific, clinical and statistical evidence required by donor and advisory
agencies (World Health Organization, UNICEF, UNFPA, USAID) before they
will contribute the funds necessary to distribute the LifeWrap
globally.
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Success Story
 In
Nigeria a woman who gave birth at home arrives at the emergency room
bleeding heavily. She has no pulse, no blood pressure, is pale and
cold. Her relatives leave and go outside to grieve her death. The
doctors in the hospital have just received the LifeWrap, and they place it
on the woman.
Within
two minutes, her eyelids begin to flutter and she begins murmuring. The
doctors call to her relatives, "She is alive!" The relatives return and
rejoice. They tell her, "You need a new name. From now on you are AYORUNBO, she who has been to heaven and returned!"
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How To Donate Now
ONLINE
DONATION
Click on the button below
-
"Donate Now Via UCSF Make a Gift"
Click gift or pledge
button under "Gift type" and the page automatically refreshes with
Safe Motherhood Programs/LifeWrap as your gift designation.
If you are choosing to
honor someone, check the box near the bottom of the page before
providing your personal and payment information on the following
pages to complete the process.
MAIL DONATION
You could also send a
check made out to Safe Motherhood Programs to Safe
Motherhood Programs, UCSF Box 0248, San Francisco, CA 94143-0248
What my donation to Dr. Suellen Miller, the Safe Motherhood Program and LifeWraps will accomplish...
$160 will buy one LifeWrap which can be used up to 50
times
$500 will buy two LifeWraps, their transport to rural
villages and training in their use
$1,200 will provide the monthly salary for a
physician and midwife team at one of our project sites
$2,000 will buy four LifeWraps and provide training
to an entire hospital
Please feel free to donate
any amount.
For every gift of $160 or
over, a gift card with a beautiful photograph will be sent in
your name to the person you wish to honor. Please include
honoree’s name and address if you are sending a check by mail.
Gift Card
that will be sent to the person you wish to honor
Contact Us
For more information please see
Dr. Suellen Miller &
Safe Motherhood Programs
For more information or to be
added to our mailing list:
lifewrapsinfo@gmail.com
Safe Motherhood Programs
Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health
Dept of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences
50 Beale Street, Suite 1200
San Francisco, CA 94105
Phone: (415) 597 9205
Fax (415) 597 9300
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