Gnosis by Lesaffre (France) has formed a partnership with the NGO Maternity Foundation to advance healthier pregnancies for women in some of the world’s most fragile and remote settings. When pregnancies are healthier, complications fall, and more mothers and babies survive and thrive. This reality underscores the need for strong partnerships that prioritize prevention and expand access to quality care. To this end, the partners will engage in joint advocacy efforts while advancing midwifery education.
As part of the partnership, Gnosis will provide significant financial support over three years to accelerate the expansion of Maternity Foundation’s Safe Delivery App, a job aid, training and microlearning tool that helps midwives deliver quality care to pregnant women, mothers, and newborns in low-resource settings, in line with WHO (World Health Organization) guidelines. The app, which is free and works offline, has already reached 500,000 health care professionals worldwide, together with its accompanying training program.
A key focus of the partnership will be promoting the Safe Delivery App’s antenatal care module, which guides midwives on providing quality care throughout pregnancy. Leveraging Maternity Foundation’s master trainers and awareness-raising activities, the rollout of the app’s clinical content will be efficiently cascaded to midwives at scale, strengthening their capacity to support healthier pregnancies in low-resource settings worldwide.
Additionally, the partners will collaborate to increase global and country-level awareness of the importance of promoting healthier pregnancies, emphasizing proper nutrition and supplementation— particularly folate—as essential for improving maternal and newborn health outcomes.
“Our partnership with Gnosis by Lesaffre exemplifies how cross-sector collaboration can drive meaningful progress in maternal and newborn health. By joining forces—through joint advocacy and by leveraging the Safe Delivery App and its accompanying training program—we can accelerate efforts to promote healthier pregnancies, ultimately contributing to safer births and better beginnings for babies,” said Anna Frellsen, CEO of Maternity Foundation.
“At Gnosis by Lesaffre, our purpose is to elevate the well-being of humanity, and no endeavor is more sacred than nurturing mothers and, in turn, their children—the foundation for healthier generations to come,” added Marion Garel, Gnosis director of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and cross-divisional coordinator. “Proper nutrition is the cornerstone of this noble pursuit, and supplementation becomes essential when we fall short in obtaining vital vitamins and nutrients from diet alone.
“While folic acid has long been the standard of care for Vitamin B9, research shows that not everyone metabolizes it in the same way,” Garel added. “This reinforces the importance of ensuring that women everywhere have access to folate forms that can support their individual needs, so that every pregnancy has the best possible start.”
The Safe Delivery App’s antenatal care module is currently available in the Arabic, French and English global master versions of the app, as well as in the national versions for India and Ethiopia. With more than 30 language editions already in use, plans are underway to further expand the module, ensuring it reaches more countries and supports more midwives in the years ahead.
For more information, visit www.gnosisbylesaffre.com, www.lesaffre.com or www.maternity.dk.
