A Milton Keynes Hospital NHS Foundation Trust Consultant who is helping to save the lives of thousands of women throughout the world who would otherwise die following childbirth is set to help launch a new website designed to provide expert support to health professionals across the globe in their care of women, on the 20th November 2008, in London.
Professor Christopher B-Lynch, who invented the now famous B-Lynch Suture, a simple operation to stop haemorrhage and prevent the need for a hysterectomy, has played an integral part in the development of the “safer motherhood” section of the new website.
The Global Library of Women’s Medicine www.glowm.com will be free to obstetricians, gynaecologists, reproductive health professionals and students across the globe to consult at anytime.
Professor B-Lynch, who has worked at Milton Keynes Hospital since it opened in 1984, is gifting his gynaecological skills to countries around the world to help tackle the high numbers of maternal deaths from post partum haemorrhage (bleeding following childbirth).
The new website includes an explanatory poster developed by Professor B-Lynch entitled “Surgical Technique for the Control of Massive Postpartum Haemorrhage” designed as an aide memoire for surgeons.
Over 250,000 women bleed to death unnecessarily each year and the problem is particularly acute in the developing world.
More than half a million women die in child birth in the world in a year, but only 1% of those deaths occur in the developed world. The majority occur in sub-Saharan Africa. Most of these deaths are caused by haemorrhage – a field in which Professor B-Lynch is an expert.
Professor B-Lynch was one of several top specialists from all over the world invited to speak at a recent World Health Organisation conference in Angola on “Haemorrhage During Pregnancy, Childbirth and Post Partum”, and at a Scientific Meeting on “Maternal and Child Health” organized by the Angolan Society of Gynaecologists and Obstetricians.
He demonstrated the technique to the conference medics, and is set to help train doctors worldwide to perform his signature suture.
Professor Christopher B-Lynch, Consultant Gynaecologist from Milton Keynes Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, said: "This operation is absolutely ideal for countries such as Angola. It is easy to perform, relatively cheap and very, very effective. I'm confident it will make a real difference to the mortality rate.”
A team is now working on a distance learning computer programme that can demonstrate the technique to health workers thousands of miles away.
For more information and interviews contact: Jenny Murray, Communications Manager, Milton Keynes Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Tel: 01908 243922, Email: jenny.murray@mkhospital.nhs.uk
- Women die of a wide range of direct or indirect causes in pregnancy, childbirth or the postpartum period. Globally, about 80% of maternal deaths are due to direct causes. The four major killers are: severe bleeding (mostly postpartum haemorrhage), infections (mostly sepsis), hypertensive disorders in pregnancy (usually eclampsia), and obstructed labour. The World Health Report. Make every mother and every child count. Geneva, World Health Organization, 2005, p. 62.
- Every day, 1500 women die from pregnancy- or childbirth-related complications. In 2005, there were an estimated 536 000 maternal deaths worldwide. Most of these deaths occur in the developing world and most of them are avoidable. Maternal mortality in 2005. Estimates developed by WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA and The World Bank. Geneva, World Health Organization, 2007.
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