The blood mat was invented by Dr. Quaiyum, a researcher at ICDDRB in Bangladesh. The mat holds a maximum of 500 mL of blood. The way the blood travels across the mat enables a visual depiction of how much blood a woman has lost (see here the mat is half full of blood at 250 mL). At 500 mL the mat will begin to leak onto plastic or onto the floor signaling PPH. In the fall of 2010 Dr. Quaiyum received a Gates Grand Challenges grant to enable him to further develop this mat and to make the mat biodegradable.