Two of the major killers of women, fetuses, and newborns are eclampsia and severe obstetric hemorrhage. Osman, Campbell, and Nassar, in their investigation of the use of emergency obstetric drills to improve pregnancy outcomes, have tested a strategy aimed at improving the facility management of those conditions, and especially the speed at which that management is implemented (1). They have rightly concluded that increasing staff knowledge regarding the appropriate management of these conditions alone may not be sufficient to improve outcomes, and that practice, with the goal of identifying problems and improving speed, was necessary if timely and appropriate treatment was to be achieved. Using a preevaluation and postevaluation strategy, they demonstrated that the use of obstetric drills can improve facility management of eclampsia and severe obstetric hemorrhage.
