About the Authors

Joy E. Lawn

joylawn@yahoo.co.uk

Affiliation Saving Newborn Lives/Save the Children, Cape Town, South Africa

Rajiv Bahl

Affiliation Department for Child and Adolescent Health and Development, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland

Staffan Bergstrom

Affiliation Division of Global Health, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, and Averting Maternal Death and Disability Program, Columbia University, New York, New York, United States of America

Zulfiqar A. Bhutta

Affiliation Division of Women & Child Health, the Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan

Gary L. Darmstadt

Affiliation Family Health Division, Global Health Program, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle, Washington, United States of America

Matthew Ellis

Affiliation Community Child Health Partnership, Southmead Hospital, Bristol, United Kingdom

Mike English

Affiliation KEMRI–Wellcome Trust Programme, Centre for Geographic Medicine Research–Coast, Nairobi, Kenya, and Department of Paediatrics, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom

Jennifer J. Kurinczuk

Affiliation The National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom

Anne C. C. Lee

Affiliation Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America

Mario Merialdi

Affiliation Department of Reproductive Health and Research, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland

Mohamed Mohamed

Affiliation George Washington University, Washington, D.C., United States of America

David Osrin

Affiliation Centre for International Health and Development, UCL Institute of Child Health, London, United Kingdom

Robert Pattinson

Affiliation MRC Maternal and Infant Heath Care Strategies Research Unit at the University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

Vinod Paul

Affiliation Department of Pediatrics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India

Siddarth Ramji

Affiliation Department of Pediatrics, Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi, India

Ola D. Saugstad

Affiliation Department of Pediatric Research, Oslo University Hospital Rikshospitalet, University of Oslo, Norway

Lyn Sibley

Affiliation Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America

Nalini Singhal

Affiliation Department of Pediatrics, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Steven N. Wall

Affiliation Saving Newborn Lives/Save the Children, Washington, D.C., United States of America

Dave Woods

Affiliation University of Cape Town and the Perinatal Education Programme, Observatory, South Africa

John Wyatt

Affiliation Centre for Philosophy, Justice and Health, University College of London, London, United Kingdom, and Center for Women's Health, University College of London, London, United Kingdom

Kit Yee Chan

Joint senior authors.

Affiliation Nossal Institute of Global Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia

Igor Rudan

Joint senior authors.

Affiliation Croatian Centre for Global Health, University of Split Medical School, Split, Croatia, and the Centre for Population Health Sciences, The University of Edinburgh Medical School, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Competing Interests

Zulfiqar Bhutta and David Osrin are members of the Editorial Board of PLoS Medicine. None of the other authors declare any competing interests.

Author Contributions

ICMJE criteria for authorship read and met: J. Lawn R. Bahl S. Bergstrom Z. Bhutta G. Darmstadt M. Ellis M. English J. Kurinczuk A. Lee M. Merialdi M. Mohamed D. Osrin R. Pattinson V. Paul S. Ramji O. Saugstad L. Sibley N. Singhal S. Wall D. Woods J. Wyatt K. Chan I. Rudan. Agree with the manuscript's results and conclusions: J. Lawn R. Bahl S. Bergstrom Z. Bhutta G. Darmstadt M. Ellis M. English J. Kurinczuk A. Lee M. Merialdi M. Mohamed D. Osrin R. Pattinson V. Paul S. Ramji O. Saugstad L. Sibley N. Singhal S. Wall D. Woods J. Wyatt K. Chan I. Rudan. Designed the experiments/the study: J. Lawn R. Bahl S. Bergstrom G. Darmstadt I. Rudan. Analyzed the data: J. Lawn K. Chan I. Rudan. Collected data/did experiments for the study: J. Lawn M. Ellis J. Kurinczuk L. Sibley S. Wall. Wrote the first draft of the paper: J. Lawn I. Rudan. Contributed to the writing of the paper: R. Bahl S. Bergstrom Z. Bhutta G. Darmstadt M. Ellis M. English J. Kurinczuk A. Lee M. Merialdi D. Osrin R. Pattinson V. Paul O. Saugstad N. Singhal S. Wall D. Woods J. Wyatt K. Chan I. Rudan. Contributed to the scoring for the research priorities: Z. Bhutta. Was an expert collaborator who participated in the expert survey: M. Ellis. Part of expert panel providing data used: M. English. Read and agree with submission of the final version of the paper: J. Kurinczuk. The paper is based on surveying physicians & researchers who are public health experts and working in the field of decreasing mortalities related to birth process for mothers and their babies. The survey examined current and future research priorities concerning birth related mortalities. The survey was thorough and comprehensive. It required a significant amount of time to read, analyze, and answer each questions considering multiple factors. All participating experts are considered authors on this paper. I was a responder to the study: M. Mohamed. Contributed expert opinion to the process described in the paper: D. Osrin. Scored questions: R. Pattinson. Participated in the systematic assessment and ranking of the research priorities. Contributed to the interpretation of findings. Helped in refining the manuscript: V. Paul. Contributed to the technical inputs for the paper and commented on final draft of the paper: S. Ramji. Contributed with data: O. Saugstad. Helped with the coding of the different research priorities: N. Singhal. Took part as a technical expert contributing and commenting on the research questions: D. Woods. Was involved in contributing data for the research process and reviewed, checked, and approved various drafts of the manuscript: J. Wyatt.