The research of this interdisciplinary regional group has provided evidence of the variations in maternal health care in the region and of the discrepancy between routine practices and best practices consistent with the current scientific evidence. Specific studies conducted in the four countries participating in the network identify problems in the quality of maternal health services and the lack of women's involvement in the decision-making process of care. We suggest areas amenable to improvement and provide baseline information for the development of interventions to promote evidence-based effective care. Intervention studies have recently been completed in Egypt, Lebanon, and Syria.

The CCCC is part of a larger research network on reproductive health in the Arab countries and Turkey called the Reproductive Health Working Group (RHWG).

The CCCC is also a member of the WHO Partnership of Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health.

Aim and Objectives

Aim
The overall aim of the CCCC research network is to understand how maternal health care in Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria can be made safer and more satisfactory for women and their newborns.

Objectives
The objectives are to:

• produce and publish high-quality research
  
• disseminate research findings through media and various activities with stakeholders
  
• encourage evidence-based practice by health care providers

        For example, the Initiative on Standards Of Practice In Childbirth (ISOPIC)

Funding
The CCCC network is under the auspices of the Center for Research on Population and Health (CRPH) at the Faculty of Health Sciences, American University of Beirut, Lebanon. It has been supported generously by the Wellcome Trust (UK) since 2001.

Other sources of funding have included the Population Council, the Ford Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).


Location
Choices and Challenges in Changing Childbirth
Faculty of Health Sciences
American University of Beirut
PO Box 11-0236
Riad El Solh 1107 2020
Beirut, Lebanon
Email: gs29@aub.edu.lb