The I’M WOMAN Trial team celebrates recruiting 10,000 women

The I’M WOMAN Trial teams in Nigeria, Pakistan and Tanzania have recruited a total of 10,000 women. The trial is currently one third of the way to achieving its target of 30,000 women.

The I’M WOMAN Trial is recruiting women to explore faster, simpler ways to give tranexamic acid (TXA) to reduce postpartum haemorrhage – excessive bleeding after childbirth.

Currently TXA is administered intravenously, an injection that takes up to ten minutes. Additionally, healthcare workers need extra training to administer an IV injection or fit a canula, so the trial is seeking a more accessible alternative by examining the effects of injecting TXA into a muscle, rather than into a vein.

The I’M WOMAN Trial team based in Nigeria and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) celebrate this milestone:

Professors Nike Bello and Oladapo Olayemi, National Coordinators at University College of Medicine Ibadan in Nigeria, said:

“The Nigerian team is delighted at the effort all our sites are putting into the trial. Everyone’s been committed to smoothing the bumps we have inevitably hit.

“At 10,000 participants, it is exciting to be a step closer to hopefully determining new ways to reduce maternal deaths by 2030 in line with SDG 3.1.”

Professor Rizwana Chaudhri, National Coordinator at Shifa Tameer-e-Millat University, Pakistan, said: 

“I’m very impressed by the speed at which the trial is recruiting.

“If intramuscular injection of tranexamic acid is found to be equally effective as intravenous administration, it could be a game changer for reducing global maternal deaths.”

Dr Amy Brenner, Principal Investigator of the I’M WOMAN Trial at LSHTM, said:

“It would not be possible to achieve this milestone without the hard work and dedication of all the international teams recruiting women to the trial. The principal investigators, research fellows, doctors, nurses, midwives and pharmacists, and the women who voluntarily take part are instrumental in recruiting at such speed.

“If we can achieve this in under a year, we are confident that we can meet our next milestone through continued collaboration with the teams in Nigeria, Pakistan, Tanzania, and soon, Ethiopia.”

The trial takes place in 39 hospital sites and preparations to recruit women in the trial’s fourth collaborating country, Ethiopia, are currently underway and will be announced shortly.

Learn more about the trial and the collaborating sites recruiting women to the trial.