Delivering services and influencing policy: health care professionals join forces to improve maternal, newborn, and child health.

This article reviews the major activities of health care professional organizations (HCPAs), and emphasizes the role they can play in advocating for women and children and influencing maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH) programs and policies. The ICM/FIGO joint effort to prevent postpartum hemorrhage and the 40-year partnership between the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Indian Health Service (IHS) are highlighted as examples of how and why HCPAs should assume a leadership role in advocacy work. The action-oriented multicountry HCPA workshops organized by the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health (PMNCH) and the international HCPAs are also described. These capacity building workshops are aimed at strengthening the ability of HCPAs to organize, coordinate activities, and become more involved in program and policy development.