The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued four new recommendations which are supported by evidence from Cochrane Pregnancy and Childbirth reviews.
Cochrane has been a non-governmental organization in official relations with WHO since 2011, and a major aspect of this partnership is supporting WHO’s global health guidelines with relevant evidence synthesis.
The Cochrane Pregnancy and Childbirth Group has a long-standing collaboration with WHO on the development and updating of Cochrane reviews that inform WHO’s guidelines on global maternal and perinatal health.
This relationship has led to the development of a joint ‘living guidelines’ system. The approach uses a combination of ongoing literature surveillance to inform prioritization, rapid appraisal of the potential impacts of new evidence on recommendations and accelerated updating of high-priority Cochrane systematic reviews for key questions.
The four new WHO recommendations, which relate to the prevention and treatment of maternal peripartum infections, were developed using this approach.
Read the new WHO recommendations:
- Routine antibiotic prophylaxis for women undergoing operative vaginal birth
- Prophylactic antibiotics for women undergoing caesarean section
- Choice of antiseptic agent and method of application for preoperative skin preparation for caesarean section
- Vaginal preparation with antiseptic agents for women undergoing caesarean section
Cochrane is extremely proud of this valuable work and our continued partnership with WHO. It ensures that the latest evidence in maternal and perinatal health can be translated into practice as quickly as possible.
