The Global Alliance to Prevent Prematurity and Stillbirth (GAPPS), an initiative of Seattle Children’s, leads a collaborative, global effort to increase awareness and accelerate innovative research and interventions to improve maternal, newborn and child health outcomes.
Globally, more newborns die each year from prematurity than from any other cause. Additionally, a staggering one million stillbirths happen just minutes or hours before birth every year, and many of these losses are linked to maternal deaths.
GAPPS partners with global experts in science, public health and policy to achieve these core goals: advance research to understand causes and consequences; accelerate development and delivery of cost-effective interventions; and raise awareness about these neglected issues. GAPPS also operates a repository of data and specimens from pregnant women, such as blood and tissues, which serves as a significant resource in advancing global health innovations.
Nearly 200 global stakeholders have outlined what needs to be done in a 2015 Global Action Agenda on Preterm Birth and Stillbirth (GAA). Key goals of the 2015 GAA:
• Reduce the 15M preterm births and 2.6M stillbirths that occur each year around the world
• Improve survival for babies born too soon
• Accelerate progress on Millennium Development Goals to improve maternal and child health.
What we do
GAPPS works to strengthen collaborations in maternal, newborn and child health, and develop a unified, global focus on preterm birth and stillbirth. Seattle Children’s — an internationally recognized leader in pediatric health and research — launched GAPPS to achieve these primary goals:
- Make every birth count
- Improve maternal and newborn health outcomes
- Translate discoveries into diagnostic, treatment, and prevention strategies
- Build global health research capacity
- Advocate for policy changes and increased resources
