Maternal Health Operations Project

This project is a collaborative initiative involving researchers and employees of the London Business School, the University of Michigan, the University of Liberia's College of Health Sciences and the Family Health Division of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Liberia. Our goal is to develop evidence-based knowledge and tools leveraging modern analytical methods for improving the effectiveness of perinatal health delivery systems.
Project contact: birth-analytics@london.edu

➤ Tool 1: Skilled Birth Assistance (SBA) Wheel
➤ Tool 2: Artemis Unassisted Birth Risk Mapping System
➤ Research Papers
➤ Contributors

Skilled Birth Assistance (SBA) Wheel

Figure: SBA Wheel (Multiparas side).

The SBA wheel is a cardboard-based device designed to inform the care access advice provided by healthcare providers during antenatal consultations by estimating (i) the baseline risk of unassisted birth for an individual pregnant woman given her living location, parity and access to transportation according to the labour timeline model; and (ii) how this risk may be reduced by maternity waiting home stays of different lengths.

Tool Access

The current estimated price of the SBA Wheel (excluding shipping fees) is 0.6 USD per unit. To order copies of this device please complete the form.

Documentation

Contributors

Design Team: Jérémie Gallien^*, Qi (George) Chen^*, Yuhang Du^*, Yi Zhang, Jody Lori, Joseph Sieka, Bentoe Tehoungue
Implementation Research Partner: Family Health Division, Ministry of Health, Republic of Liberia
Funding: London Business School

^* Equal contribution

License

Artemis Unassisted Birth Risk Mapping System

Figure: Selected Artemis Output Map.

Figure: Selected Artemis Output Table.

Artemis is a web-based and free software system for mapping and analyzing population-level risk of unassisted births according to the labour timeline model. Its use case scenarios include: (i) identifying regions, districts, facility catchment areas and communities facing the greatest risk of unassisted birth; (ii) determining effective referral policies for maternity waiting homes; (iii) quantifying the population health benefits of considered capacity extensions for a network of EmONC and/or maternity waiting home facilities.

Access

You can access Artemis here: Launch Artemis

Documentation

Contributors

Design Team: Qi (George) Chen, Yuhang Du, Jérémie Gallien, Jody Lori, Dimitris Panayiotou, Joseph Sieka
Development Team: Dimitris Panayiotou, Demetris Kouppas, Alexander Brown, Efstathios Panayiotou
Implementation Research Partner: Family Health Division, Ministry of Health, Republic of Liberia
Funding: London Business School

License

Artemis Software © 2025 by Qi (George) Chen, Yuhang Du, Jérémie Gallien, Jody Lori, Dimitris Panayiotou, Joseph Sieka, Demetris Kouppas, Alexander Brown, Efstathios Panayiotou is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0

The research papers produced as part of this collaborative project are available from the links below:

Gallien J, Chen QG, Du Y, Zhang Y, Lori J, Sieka J and Tehoungue B, “A Simple Statistical Model and Physical Device to Estimate a Woman-specific Probability of Skilled Birth Assistance and Associated Benefit of Maternity Waiting Home Stay,” PLoS One 20 (5): e0302245, 2025. [link]
Chen QG, Du Y, Gallien J, Lori J, Panayiotou D and Sieka J, “Optimal Assignment Guidelines for Maternity Waiting Homes in Resource-Constrained Environments,” 2025. [link]