Dr. Tamar Kabakian-Khasholian was invited by the World Health Organization (WHO) to participate in the working meeting on content development for WHO Knowledge Translation Companion for Respectful Maternal and Newborn Care, which took place in WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland on 19-21 September 2023.
Tamar Kabakian-Khasholian is an Associate Professor at the Department of Health Promotion and Community Health at the Faculty of Health Sciences, American University of Beirut. Her research revolves around intervention research across multiple countries and contexts in the Arab region with a focus on women's experiences in defining quality of care and has led research on companion of choice at birth and respectful maternal newborn care. She is a founding member and acted as regional coordinator (2001-2009) of Choices and Challenges in Changing Childbirth Research Network, a program on childbirth research in Arab countries. She served on the global Executive Guideline Steering Group for updating WHO Maternal and Perinatal Health recommendations for two consecutive terms and contributed to various WHO guideline development groups for maternal newborn health.
Kabakian-Khasholian was invited among a small group of global experts in Respectful Maternal and Newborn Care to discuss and review the content sections of the knowledge translation companion and plan towards the finalization of the companion and for its launch. This collaborative effort led by WHO uses a human-centered design approach and aims at enabling implementation and scale-up of Respectful Maternal and Newborn Care in different contexts. Earlier in May 2023, Kabakian-Khasholian was part of the same team that facilitated a global stakeholder meeting that informed the content and the design of the companion, as part of the International Maternal Newborn Health Conference in Cape Town, South Africa where she also moderated the session on operationalizing WHO recommendations for a positive postnatal experience.