26^th ILBRC · 2027 Reimagining Birth in Africa: Evidence, Innovation, and Interdisciplinary Pathways to Universal Access

On behalf of the International Labour and Birth Research Conference Steering Group, I am very pleased to let you know that, in 2027, for the first time since the event began 25 years ago, it will take place in Africa.
Many congratulations to Dr. Jemima Dennis-Antwi and her team for enabling this to happen. The event will be held in Accra, Ghana between September xx, 2027. As previous attendees will know, the conference series was started in 2001 in Preston UK, by what was then called the University of Central Lancashire, now the University of Lancashire. Since 2001 the conference has run virtually every year, alternately in the UK and around the world.
The statement that ‘the ability to protect the health of mothers and babies in childbirth is a basic measure of a society's development’ has been widely quoted. It is well accepted that countries that get pregnancy, childbirth, and the postnatal period right are most likely to have healthy populations and thriving societies. Over the last few decades, there has been a welcome investment in diagnosis, treatment, and emergency care in the perinatal period, with consequent improvements in outcomes. However, there is still a long way to go to improve the quality of maternity care for all. Significantly, there has been less research and investment focused on maintaining safe, personalised physiological labour and birth for the majority of women and babies who would like this, and who can benefit from it. Indeed, there is concern around the world that excessive and potentially damagingly high rates of interventions in labour and birth are occurring in some locations, in parallel with rates that are also too low for other populations, often in the same country. In 2021, in their statement of ethics relating to respectful maternity care, FIGO said ‘Pregnancy, labour and birth are life-changing physiologic processes for most women and their families’:This matters to many childbearing women, and has consequences not only in the short term, but also, research suggests, throughout the life course. The conference was set up in recognition of the fact that we cannot get labour and birth right if we do not understand how to safely optimise normal physiological labour and birth for most women and their babies. It is designed to provide a space for those who want to think about research, comment on, and implement optimal ways of understanding and supporting safe and personalised physiological labour and birth, in a range of settings and circumstances. In terms of research, contributions over the years have covered a wide range of areas, including, for example, laboratory science, physiology, psychology, epidemiology, biomechanics, biometrics, sociology, social sciences, the humanities, the arts, statistics and modelling, health services research, organisation of care, implementation science, emerging AI and Big Data/data linkage studies, and the integration of wearable technologies.

The conference has previously attracted, among others, researchers, professionals, scientists, academics, artists, poets, policymakers, members of governments and of national and international professional bodies and health agencies, NGOs, service commissioners, service providers and service users.
We invite you to join us in Accra in 2027, and we look forward to seeing you there! Dr Soo Downe, OBE
Professor of Midwifery Studies
International Steering Committee Chair- International Labour and Birth Research Conference
Associate Dean, Research and Knowledge Exchange
University of Lancashire
NIHR Senior Investigator
UK

Important notice The 2026 event in Berlin was completely sold out a month before the conference took place. We are hoping that Ghana 2027 will be similarly successful. Given that many people who tried to book later were not able to get tickets for the Berlin event, we encourage you to book early for 2027! Please leave your contact details by clicking the QR code at the bottom of this page and we will let you know as soon as bookings open….