BACKGROUND Understanding the experiences and expectations of women across the continuum of antenatal, perinatal, and postnatal care is important to assess the quality of maternal care and to determine problematic areas which could be improved. The objective of this study was to identify the factors associated with maternal satisfaction with hospital-based perinatal care in Serbia. METHODS Our...

BACKGROUND Improving access to delivery services does not guarantee access to quality obstetric care and better survival, and therefore, concerns for quality of maternal and newborn care in low- and middle-income countries have been raised. Our study explored characteristics associated with the quality of initial assessment, intrapartum, and immediate postpartum and newborn care, and further as...

BACKGROUND High quality care is crucial in ensuring that women and newborns receive interventions that may prevent and treat birth-related complications. As facility deliveries increase in developing countries, there are concerns about service quality. Observation is the gold standard for clinical quality assessment, but existing observation-based measures of obstetric quality of care are lengt...

BACKGROUND Breastfeeding has countless benefits to mothers, children and community at large, especially in developing countries. Studies from Lebanon report disappointingly low breastfeeding exclusivity and continuation rates. Evidence reveals that antenatal breastfeeding education, professional lactation support, and peer lay support are individually effective at increasing breastfeeding durat...

BACKGROUND Postpartum depression (PPD) is one public health issue that affects both maternal and child health. This research studies the effect of health volunteers' telephone- based support on decreasing PPD. MATERIALS AND METHODS This randomized controlled trial evaluated 203 women who had uncomplicated deliveries. The women completed the Edinburg Postnatal Depres- sion Scale (EPDS), 10 to ...

PURPOSE The purpose of this article is to present a Swedish study exploring health care professionals' cooperation in the chain of care for expectant and new parents between antenatal care (AC), postpartum care (PC) and child health care (CHC). Furthermore, the rationale was to conceptualise barriers and facilitators of cooperation in order to generate a comprehensive theoretical model which ma...

BACKGROUND The evaluation of all potential sources of low skilled maternal care utilization is crucial for Ethiopia. Previous studies have largely disregarded the contribution of different levels. This study was planned to assess the effect of individual, communal, and health facility characteristics in the utilization of antenatal, delivery, and postnatal care by a skilled provider. METHODS ...

BACKGROUND The status of men's knowledge of and awareness to maternal, neonatal and child health care are largely unknown in Bangladesh and the effect of community focused interventions in improving men's knowledge is largely unexplored. This study identifies the extent of men's knowledge and awareness on maternal, neonatal and child health issues between intervention and control groups. METH...

BACKGROUND Routine health information is an essential health system building block. In low and low-middle income countries however, concerns about the quality of routine administrative data have often undermined their use. The purpose of the present study was to verify the data availability, and consistency of six key maternal and child health indicators (first antenatal care, fourth antenatal ...

BACKGROUND The rates of receipt of postnatal care vary widely between high and low-middle income countries. This study aimed to examine the association between indicators of socioeconomic status during pregnancy and gynecological appointment at any time after childbirth (GA). METHODS a prospective cohort study with pregnant women recruited from 10 primary care clinics of the public sector in ...