THE GOAL of the GCMIH is two-fold:  

1. To include health care and educational institutions with an interest in global humanitarian conversations around maternal, neonatal and infant health outcomes.  
2. To enhance collaboration and information sharing between areas of the world where humanitarian outreach may be the only way of effectively support bidirectional communication between healthcare providers committed to the best outcomes of mothers and babies.  

THE VISION of Global Collaboration for Maternal and Infant Health (GCMIH) is to improve every family’s opportunity for a healthy and wanted pregnancy and birth outcome.

 THE MISSION of the Global Collaboration in Maternal and Infant Health (GCMIH) is to form collaborations between providers, health administrators and systems in order to share current medical knowledge and care techniques at the hospital, regional and national levels. This collaboration promotes both improved pregnancy and neonatal outcomes and fosters communication in area of the world where a humanitarian health-related focus is the most effective way to promote global understanding and dialogue.

 OUR HISTORY: Since 1981 the Global Collaborating Center in Reproductive Health (GCC/RH), now the Global Collaboration for Maternal and Infant Health (GCMIH), has explored the causes of and developed solutions to the high rates of fetal- infant mortality in the State of Georgia.  The GCC/RH’s focus has been twofold: a) to identify evidence-based interventions known to improve the survival of the interdependent “triad” of the mother, fetus and newborn infant; and b) to expand interdisciplinary competence and collaboration to put these interventions into clinical practice.  The long-standing approach of the GCC/RH’s has been based on the dissemination of current evidence-based scientific literature.  Consequently, the Center has been asked to provide consultation and assistance in over 30 nations from all regions of the world. Major past international projects have included: Making Pregnancy Safe Projects; teaching Neonatal Resuscitation in various countries; the International Collaborative Effort on Perinatal and Neonatal Morbidity and Mortality; and United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) consultations. In 2024, we changed the name of the entity to better reflect our focus on maternal health and newborn wellbeing. 

CURRENT GCMIH ACTIVITIES: The GCMIH’s ongoing activities are guided by the humanitarian desire to expand the healthcare professional’s interdisciplinary clinical competence and to foster regionalized care in reproductive health and maternal and infant health.   The areas for collaborative focus are developed jointly and shared broadly via web-based lectures and case studies.  When feasible, data sharing and quality improvement approaches to assessing and enhancing care are undertaken as an essential part of understanding how care is organized and delivered.  The GCMIH’s central research project involves focusing on the role of inter-pregnancy care as well as in-hospital care of the mother and baby.  We look more specifically at the role of recurrent preterm and/or very low birthweight births as an indicator of potential future pregnancy problems.   The care model for which we advocate includes physicians, nurse practitioners, bedside nurses, and the array of caregivers found in most modern perinatal care units.

The GCMIH currently builds on a long history education and training aimed at the most difficult issues causing morbidity and mortality in women and infants.  The presentations include attention to nursing, advanced practice providers, other perinatal providers, as well as physicians.  Over the past two decades, our webinars and in-person seminars have covered a wide range of topics including: 

• Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE) in Term Infants 
• Monitoring of the fetus and newborn weighing under 1.5kg (3pounds) 
• Survival and Neurodevelopmental Outcomes of Peri-viable Infants 
• Ethics and the care of the baby at the margin of viability 
• The baby with bronchopulmonary dysplasia: from the intensive care unit to the outpatient clinic 
• Management of Hypertensive Disorders in Pregnancy 
• Nutrition of the preterm infant: experience of the USA.   
• Current strategies for the prevention of nosocomial infection in premature infants 
• Early Onset Infection and Antibiotic Use in Neonates 
• Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) in newborns: a neonatologist’s perspective 
• NEC and NEC-like diseases of prematurity: Differential diagnosis and treatment 
• Hypoglycemia in the Infant of the Diabetic Mother Systems of Care and Care Mapping 
• Treatment of Anemia in the Term Neonate 
• The Diagnosis and Management of Hepatosplenomegaly in the Neonate 
• Differential diagnosis of liver function disorders in newborns 
• Differential diagnosis and treatment of newborns with hemorrhagic disorders (clinical cases)   
• Therapeutic Hypothermia – Case presentations 
• Week-long workshop in advanced nursing skills in neonatal care