🩺
Stop Maternal Mortality
Countries🇱🇷Liberia
WHO · UNICEF · UN IGME 2024← All Countries
🇱🇷
Maternal & Child Mortality
in Liberia
West Africa · #21 of 30 worst globally
Child Deaths Since Jan 1, 2026
0
59.4 per 1,000 live births · Liberia
Deaths at Birth Today
0
est. newborns today
Infant Mortality Rate
59.4
per 1,000 · 2.2× world avg
Maternal Mortality Rate
652
per 100,000 · 3.3× world avg
Flag of LiberiaWest Africa
Birth Mortality Crisis

Mothers & Newborns
Dying in Liberia
During Childbirth

652 maternal deaths per 100,000 — reflecting near-total destruction of the skilled health workforce through war and emigration.

Newborn & Infant Mortality
59.4deaths per 1,000 live births
2.2× the world average
Maternal Mortality During Birth
652deaths per 100,000 live births
3.3× the world average
👶

Newborn & Child Deaths During Birth in Liberia

Back-to-back civil wars (1989–2003) killed 10% of the population. When Ebola arrived in 2014, Liberia had just 51 doctors for a population of 4 million.

Meaningful improvement since 2003 peace. Post-Ebola recovery is slow but steady.

Leading Causes of Child Death at Birth
Malaria30%
Neonatal causes24%
Diarrhoea15%
Pneumonia13%
Other18%

* Neonatal deaths (first 28 days) represent the largest share of under-5 mortality.

What Happens in the Delivery Room
🏥
Births in a health facility~82%
estimated — lower in conflict/rural areas
👩‍⚕️
Skilled birth attendant present~49%
doctor, midwife or trained nurse
⚠️
Neonatal deaths (first 28 days)48%
of all under-5 deaths occur at birth
🩸
Most preventable with skilled care~75%
of child and maternal deaths
🤱

Maternal Mortality During Birth in Liberia

Brain drain has left Liberia critically short of health professionals. Ebola erased a decade of maternal health progress in 18 months.

Improving post-Ebola but still below 2013 levels in rural areas.

Causes of Death During Labour & Delivery
Haemorrhage28%
Eclampsia22%
Sepsis19%
Obstructed labour16%
Malaria in pregnancy10%
Other5%

* Haemorrhage and eclampsia together cause over 50% of deaths — both are treatable with basic skilled care.

Why Mothers Die at Birth Here
🩺
Emergency obstetric care availableLimited
few facilities can manage haemorrhage
🩸
Blood transfusion accessCritical gap
haemorrhage kills within 2 hours
💊
Magnesium sulphate (eclampsia)Often absent
costs $1 — saves lives instantly
If skilled care were universal~75% fewer deaths
WHO estimate for this mortality level
⚠️

Why Is This Still Happening?

Structural Barriers to Safe Birth in Liberia
14 years of civil war destroying health infrastructure
2014 Ebola epidemic with only 51 doctors for 4M people
Severe brain drain of health professionals
Rubber plantation economy with poor worker health coverage
🎯
SDG 3 Progress Assessment

Sustained investment in health worker training and retention is the critical lever for Liberia.

💡
Prevention & Solutions

How Can We Prevent This in Liberia?

📍 The Situation

Liberia's health system was rebuilt almost from scratch after its civil wars, and then devastated again by the 2014–2016 Ebola epidemic. Today, the country has a young health workforce with limited diagnostic skills for non-infectious conditions — including obstetric emergencies.

🔬 How Ultrasound Helps

Liberia's young, post-Ebola health workforce is actually an asset in the context of POCUS training — they are adaptable, motivated, and comfortable with technology. GUSI's OB POCUS course, delivered online through ScanHub™, is accessible to Liberian nurses and midwives with smartphone access and can be completed alongside ongoing clinical duties.

🎓 The Training Gap

Liberia's established NGO health sector can provide the supervision structure needed for clinical sign-off. GUSI's online-first model — with in-person supervised practice as the final step — maps perfectly onto Liberia's existing international NGO health network.

🩺
Global Ultrasound Institute · GUSI
The training that closes the gap exists today.

GUSI trains physicians, nurses, midwives, and community health workers in Point-of-Care Ultrasound — the technology that detects the conditions killing mothers and babies before they become emergencies. OB POCUS · Pediatric POCUS · Primary Care POCUS · Online & in-person.

What a trained provider can detect with a portable ultrasound device
🩸Placenta previa
🔄Malpresentation
👥Twin pregnancy
📉Fetal growth restriction
Pre-eclampsia markers
🫁Childhood pneumonia
💉Internal bleeding
🧠Hydrocephalus
🧮
Interactive Model

POCUS Impact Calculator — Liberia

Model based on: 600 scans/provider/year · 15% high-risk detection rate · 47% mortality reduction for detected cases (Swanson et al. 2014 · WHO POCUS in LMICs review)
50
1 provider250500 providers
Scans per Year
30,000
pregnant women screened
High-Risk Detected
4,500
flagged for referral / intervention
Maternal Deaths Prevented
44
mothers saved per year
Newborn Deaths Prevented
48
babies saved per year
Total Lives Saved Per Year
92deaths prevented
1.8
lives per provider
$269
est. cost per life saved
$24,750
total training investment

* This calculator uses a conservative evidence-based model. Actual impact varies by deployment context, provider experience, and health system capacity. Training cost based on GUSI OB POCUS Essentials (~$495/provider). Mortality reduction from peer-reviewed POCUS implementation studies in low-resource settings.

Technology & Education

A Practical Plan to Bring POCUS to Liberia

🗺️ Our Plan to Bring POCUS to Liberia

Our goal is to partner with GUSI (Global Ultrasound Institute) and leading portable ultrasound manufacturers to place life-saving diagnostic tools directly in the hands of trained local providers across Liberia — so that dangerous complications are caught early, not discovered too late.

  1. Start with the ground truth.Our plan begins by mapping what already exists — facilities, referral pathways, blood supply, and the midwives, nurses, and physicians who are closest to mothers at the moment of crisis.
  2. Train local champions through GUSI.We enrol a core group of local providers in GUSI's OB POCUS Essentials and Pediatric POCUS courses — then certify them to train others, so the knowledge multiplies without depending on outside experts indefinitely.
  3. Put the right device in the right hands.We partner with portable ultrasound brands — Butterfly iQ+, Philips Lumify, GE Vscan Air — to source devices suited to Liberia's power infrastructure, connectivity, and budget. No unnecessary complexity, just what works in the field.
  4. Build a referral system around what the scan finds.A scan without a clear next step saves no one. Our plan defines exactly what to look for, which findings require immediate referral, and how to document everything at the point of care — so no warning sign is lost in translation.
  5. Sustain it through ongoing quality assurance.Regular image review sessions, outcomes tracking, and refresher training keep skills sharp and standards high — turning a one-time intervention into a durable change in how care is delivered.
📡 Recommended Portable Ultrasound Devices
🦋 Butterfly iQ+
Website →
Single-probe whole-body device covering OB, cardiac, lung, and FAST exams. App-based platform with built-in AI guidance. Designed for low-resource environments — charges via USB and works with any smartphone.
🔵 Philips Lumify
Website →
App-based probe that plugs into Android phones. Multiple transducer heads available for OB and point-of-care use. Widely used in GUSI-supported training programs globally.
🟢 GE Vscan Air
Website →
Wireless, pocket-sized dual-probe handheld. Streams live images to a smartphone app. Excellent battery life — purpose-built for rapid bedside OB and FAST-style assessments.
🔷 Clarius HD3
Website →
High-resolution wireless handheld. Multiple probe configurations available. Strong image quality in a compact form factor — suitable for OB, lung, and neonatal scanning.
Global Ultrasound Institute · GUSI

The training that closes the gap — built for providers in settings like Liberia

GUSI trains physicians, nurses, midwives, and community health workers in Point-of-Care Ultrasound. Courses are designed from the ground up for providers in resource-limited settings — short, practical, competency-based, and available online or in person. Every course maps directly to the conditions killing mothers and babies during childbirth.

50+
Countries trained
OB · Peds · Emergency
POCUS specialties
Online + In-person
Flexible delivery
WHO-aligned
Curriculum standard
Available Courses
Online + hands-on
OB POCUS Essentials
The core obstetric ultrasound curriculum — fetal presentation, placenta location, amniotic fluid, gestational age, and fetal heart. Designed for physicians, nurses, and midwives with no prior ultrasound experience.
Learn more →
Online + hands-on
Pediatric POCUS
Point-of-care ultrasound for newborn and child emergencies — pneumonia, pneumothorax, cardiac tamponade, intussusception, and more. Critical for settings where neonatal and child mortality is highest.
Learn more →
Online + hands-on
FAST & Emergency POCUS
Focused Assessment with Sonography in Trauma — rapid detection of internal bleeding, haemothorax, and pericardial effusion. Life-saving in obstetric haemorrhage settings.
Learn more →
On-site program
Global Health Initiative
GUSI partners with hospitals, NGOs, and governments to deploy POCUS training at scale in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Latin America — including train-the-trainer models for local sustainability.
Learn more →