BMJ readers raised almost £34 000 for the charity Lifebox this year, making this the journal’s most successful winter charity campaign to date. Tony Falconer, president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, explains how the pulse oximeters purchased as a result will improve obstetric care and reduce maternal mortality in Africa.

“Caesarean section is probably the most common emergency surgery in Africa, with most operations carried out by medical officers either working solo or relying on an assistant with limited medical training. In that situation, it’s extremely difficult to monitor the mother’s health during anaesthesia without a pulse oximeter that can reliably alert the practitioner with an alarm when something is amiss,” he says.

Falconer predicts that with better access to pulse oximetry, the risks …