Asking Different Questions: A Call to Action for Research to Improve the Quality of Care for Every Woman, Every Child

Despite decades of considerable economic investment in improving the health of families and newborns worldwide, aspirations for maternal and newborn health have yet to be attained in many regions.1 This may be explained in part by the fact that only an estimated 7% of these funds have been invested in women and girls.2 The global turn toward recognizing the importance of prevention and positive experiences of pregnancy, intrapartum, postnatal care, and care in the first weeks of life, while continuing to work to minimize adverse outcomes, signals what we see as a critical change in the maternal and newborn health care conversation and research prioritization. Our aim is to improve and expand the knowledge base to support the United Nations and World Health Organization (WHO) “survive, thrive, and transform” agenda.3 The promotion of sustainable, context‐specific, high‐quality care holds potential for optimal physical, psychological, and social well‐being for women, newborn infants, and families in both the short and longer term. This short commentary is drawn from a concept paper published by Kennedy and colleagues4 and presents different research questions drawn from the evidence presented in the 2014 The Lancet series on midwifery5-8 and a research prioritization study conducted with the WHO.9 These are conceptualized as interconnected in Figure 1 as a means to address global maternal and newborn health in different ways.