close Icon

Healthy Mothers,
Healthy Babies (HMHB)

Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies (HMHB) is a collaborative research program aimed at providing life-saving health care for women and children in Papua New Guinea.

Burnet Institute’s philanthropically funded, collaborative research program, Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies (HMHB) is aimed at providing life-saving research for women and children in PNG.

The HMHB program aims to define the major causes of poor maternal, newborn, and child health, and to identify feasible, acceptable and effective interventions and service delivery strategies to improve reproductive, maternal, neonatal and child health (RMNCH) outcomes in PNG.

There are five program objectives:

  1. Identify and quantify major causes of illness in mothers, newborns and infants attending health care facilities, and the impact of illnesses in pregnancy on poor pregnancy outcomes for mother and infant.
  2. Identify key determinants of current maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) care utilisation, patterns (such as timeliness and completeness) of utilisation through pregnancy and the first year of life, and the predictors of optimal utilisation of health services for MNCH.
  3. Evaluate reproductive, maternal, neonatal and child heath (RMNCH) services and identify strategies to improve services aimed at reducing sickness and death.
  4. Examine sexual and reproductive health knowledge, attitudes, practices and outcomes among young people, and use this knowledge to develop strategies and inform policy development to improve sexual and reproductive health.
  5. Identify strategies to improve RMNCH care, and strengthen disease control and develop new interventions to improve maternal and child health, targeted to populations in PNG with varying levels of access to health services.

HMHB is a philanthropically-funded collaborative research program involving partnering with local representatives at the district, provincial and national level. 

It includes five separate but complementary studies to provide a complete overview of the issues being faced. The emphasis is on the generation of evidence that has immediate use in East New Britain to improve services, and that can inform future health policy in PNG and similar settings.

The program addresses three major needs:

  • Developing and testing better ways to provide interventions of proven effectiveness to communities that currently lack access.
  • Defining the major disease burdens that contribute to maternal and infant mortality, such as anaemia, malaria, TB, STIs, malnutrition, and maternal complications of childbirth.
  • Developing new and more effective interventions to improve maternal and child health.

Contact James

Deputy Director (People); Head, Malaria Immunity and Vaccines Group; Adjunct Professor, Monash University

EMAIL CALL

HMHB Team

Meet the HMHB team. Together, we are translating research into better health, for all.

Burnet research being presented at PNG Medical Symposium
08 Sep 2022 News Post
A year of growth and ambition
18 May 2023 News Post
A shared vision for the AIID
07 Jun 2023 News Post
Equity, diversity, and inclusion appointment for Professor Caroline Homer
09 Jun 2023 News Post
Vale Sir Kostas Constantinou
19 Jun 2023 News Post
Greater focus needed on anemia interventions in the postpartum period
11 Jul 2023 News Post
Alastair Lucas Prize and Gust-McKenzie Medal
21 Jul 2023 News Post
Grand plans for Burnet Travel Awards
28 Jul 2023 News Post
Burnet researchers receive $5 million in NHMRC grants
26 Sep 2023 News Post
Improved maternal health outcomes in Burnet modelling for Gates Foundation
27 Sep 2023 News Post
Professor Josh Vogel - Gust-McKenzie Oration
06 Oct 2023 News Post
Blank Image
Burnet Travel Awards
06 Jun 2021 News Post
Women need better long-term care after childbirth
07 Dec 2023 News Post
'If we have midwives, we will save lives': 2023 Fenner Award recipient, Professor Caroline Homer
14 Dec 2023 News Post
New plan for PNG immunisation
29 Jan 2020 News Post
Humanitarian Award to support HMHB
19 Feb 2020 News Post
New study highlights family planning needs in PNG
28 Jan 2021 News Post
New STI affecting pregnant women in Papua New Guinea
01 Apr 2021 News Post
How a friendship with a mum-to-be in PNG opened Margery’s eyes
23 Feb 2021 News Post
Burnet research driving WHO guidelines on preventing maternal deaths
07 Feb 2024 News Post
No evidence probiotics offer benefit during pregnancy
27 Mar 2024 News Post
Championing continuity of care in midwifery
22 Apr 2024 News Post
Link revealed between maternal STIs and reduced birthweights in Papua New Guinea
13 Jun 2024 News Post

Projects

Holding Image
Accelerating access to postnatal care and chlorhexidine in PNG
PROJECT Accelerating access to postnatal care and chlorhexidine in PNG
Holding Image
Burnet Microbiome Initiative: Vaginal microbiome in pregnant women in PNG and impact on birth weight and infant growth
PROJECT Burnet Microbiome Initiative: Vaginal microbiome in pregnant women in PNG and impact on birth weight and infant growth
Holding Image
Optima Nutrition Modelling
PROJECT Optima Nutrition Modelling
HMHB - Health Services for Postnatal and Infancy Care
PROJECT HMHB - Health Services for Postnatal and Infancy Care
ANCP Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies
PROJECT ANCP Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies
HMHB: Quality of Pregnancy, Childbirth and Newborn Health Services Study
PROJECT HMHB: Quality of Pregnancy, Childbirth and Newborn Health Services Study
HMHB: The impact of nutrition and infections on health for pregnant women and young children
PROJECT HMHB: The impact of nutrition and infections on health for pregnant women and young children
Novel Point-of-care Testing for Diagnosis of Active Syphilis in Pregnant Women and Infants in Fiji
PROJECT Novel Point-of-care Testing for Diagnosis of Active Syphilis in Pregnant Women and Infants in Fiji
Holding Image
Resilient Adolescents and Integrated Life Skills (RAIL) project, Dawei, Myanmar
PROJECT Resilient Adolescents and Integrated Life Skills (RAIL) project, Dawei, Myanmar
Holding Image
Tools for the Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (Kenya, Myanmar and Senegal)
PROJECT Tools for the Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (Kenya, Myanmar and Senegal)