Dr Fatu Forna is dedicated to improving global maternal health by reducing preventable maternal deaths through innovation, advocacy, and education.
As a young girl growing up in Sierra Leone, Fatu Forna often feared her mother would not survive childbirth. In a country where maternal deaths were heartbreakingly common and hospitals were poorly equipped, the fear of losing mothers was part of everyday life. Those experiences became her motivation to dedicate her life to ensuring no woman dies while giving life.
At fifteen, she immigrated to the United States and pursued medicine with this intent. She earned her medical degree from Duke University School of Medicine and completed her residency in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Emory University School of Medicine, later becoming a Fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. She also completed the Epidemic Intelligence Service Fellowship at the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), where she worked as a Medical Epidemiologist focusing on reproductive and maternal health.
Sierra Leone’s maternal mortality situation
Sierra Leone has made measurable progress in reducing maternal deaths, but the crisis remains severe. The country’s maternal mortality ratio, once among the world’s highest at over 1,600 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2000, has fallen to about 354 per 100,000 as of 2023. Despite this improvement, it is still far from the UN target of 70 per 100,000.
For more than twenty years, Fatu Forna has combined clinical medicine, public health, and policy to improve maternal outcomes across continents. She served as Lead for Reproductive and Maternal Health for the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Sierra Leone, where she played a major role in rebuilding maternal health systems after the civil war and Ebola crisis.
In the United States, she rose to become Chief of Women’s Services and Physician Program Director for Perinatal Safety and Quality at Kaiser Permanente Georgia (KPGA). There, she was instrumental in co-developing the Cocoon Pregnancy Care Model, an innovation that places pregnant women at the centre of coordinated, multidisciplinary care. The model, now studied internationally, has been credited with improving perinatal outcomes and reducing maternal morbidity and mortality.
Fatu Forna is also a social entrepreneur. In 2008, Forna and fellow Sierra Leonean physician Dr Shekou Sesay founded The Mama-Pikin Foundation, a nonprofit that supports mothers, children, and families in Sierra Leone. The foundation supplies rural clinics and referral hospitals with essential medical supplies, including gloves, syringes, and life-saving drugs.
Its Delivery Bucket Program – which provides pregnant women with clean birth kits to encourage safe, facility-based deliveries has reached over 20,000 mothers. The foundation has also strengthened local capacity and helped lower Sierra Leone’s maternal and neonatal mortality rates. It partners with the Sierra Leone Ministry of Health, Columbia University, and organisations like the Orange SL Foundation to expand access to healthcare, nutrition, and screening services.
Beyond clinical care, Forna is a passionate advocate for reproductive education. She authored “From Your Doctor to You: What Every Teenage Girl Should Know About Her Body, Sex, STDs, and Contraception” and created the “Puberty Party” and “Manhood/Womanhood Party” curricula, now implemented in several countries to teach adolescents about sexual health. She also writes the Puppy Princess Sheba children’s book series to promote health education through storytelling.
