PURPOSE To explore Ghanaian pregnant women's understanding and recognition of danger signs in pregnancy, birth preparedness and complication readiness, and their understanding of newborn care. DESIGN An exploratory, qualitative study design was used. METHODS Data were gathered through six focus group discussions with 68 pregnant women attending antenatal care at a busy urban hospital in Gha...

OBJECTIVE The objective of the study was to evaluate the impact of group prenatal care (GPNC) on postpartum family-planning utilization. STUDY DESIGN A retrospective cohort of women continuously enrolled in Medicaid for 12 months (n = 3637) was used to examine differences in postpartum family-planning service utilization among women participating in GPNC (n = 570) and those receiving individu...

BACKGROUND Antenatal care (ANC) is a widely used strategy to improve the health of pregnant women and to encourage skilled care during childbirth. In 2002, the Ministry of Health of the United Republic of Tanzania developed a national adaptation plan based on the new model of the World Health Organisation (WHO). In this study we assess the time health workers currently spent on providing ANC se...

BACKGROUND A large proportion of the 2.5 million new adult HIV infections that occurred worldwide in 2007 were in stable couples. Feasible and acceptable strategies to improve HIV prevention in a conjugal context are scarce. In the preparatory phase of the ANRS 12127 Prenahtest multi-site HIV prevention trial, we assessed the acceptability of couple-oriented post-test HIV counseling (COC) and m...

Over half a million women around the world die each year from conditions related to pregnancy and childbirth (WHO, 2004). The vast majority of these deaths occur in Asia and Africa, areas where prenatal care and delivery services are lacking and a woman’s nutritional status is often compromised. Sadly, the majority of women die from conditions that are preventable and could be addressed with pr...

We present a simple descriptive study of maternal health care utilization among ethnic minority women in a remote region of China. Factors that affect women obtaining care and their decision-making are explored. Results show that utilization of maternal health care services is associated with a range of social, economic, cultural and geographic factors as well as the policies of the state and t...

The role of physical violence during pregnancy on receipt of prenatal care is poorly understood, particularly for South Asian countries that have high levels of both fertility and domestic violence. Data from the 1998/1999 Indian National Family Health Survey and a 2002/2003 follow-up survey that re-interviewed women in four states were analyzed, examining the association between physical viole...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES This study assessed the effect of automated prenatal care reminders on adherence to standards of prenatal care at two family medicine teaching clinics. METHODS This was a reversal-design prospective study using medical records of prenatal patients during baseline, intervention, and post-intervention periods. RESULTS A total of 9.5% of patients received all guidelin...

STUDY OBJECTIVES To describe the utilisation of reproductive health services (family planning, antenatal care, and delivery services) and the socioeconomic determinants for utilisation of health services. DESIGN This was a cross sectional survey, using a multistage sampling technique. SETTING Tien Hai district, Thai Binh Province, Vietnam. Altogether 1132 mothers with children under 5 years...