In Ghana, abortion mortality constitutes 11% of maternal mortality. Empirical studies on possible disparities in abortion experience and access to safe abortion services are however lacking. Based on a retrospective survey of 1,370 women aged 15-49 years in two districts in Ghana, this paper examines disparities in women's experiences of abortion and access to safe abortion care. Disparities in...

Previous research reports mixed results about the association between maternal height and child mortality. Some studies suggest that the negative association might be stronger in contexts with fewer resources. This hypothesis has yet not been tested in a cross-nationally comparative design. We use data on 307,223 children born to 194,835 women in 444 districts of 42 developing countries to esti...

Wealth-related inequity in the use of maternal healthcare services continues to be a substantial problem in most low- and middle-income countries. One strategic approach to increase the use of appropriate maternal healthcare services is to encourage the expansion of the role of the private sector. However, critics of such an approach argue that increasing the role of the private sector will lea...

Background. Little is known about birth preparedness and complication readiness (BPCR) plan in resource limited settings to decrease maternal mortality. Therefore, this study was done to assess the status of BPCR and associated factors among pregnant women in South Wollo, Northwest Ethiopia, by involving 819 pregnant women from March to April, 2014. Data were collected by using pretested interv...

Introduction: The neonatal death rate indicates the improvement of community health. Knowing the maternal factors associated with neonatal  death is very effective for proper planning to improve care systems during  pregnancy, labor and birth. Therefore, the researchers decided to study the characters of mothers before and during pregnancy who had died neonate. Methods: This is a retrospective...

Issues surrounding maternal mortality have recently been widely published in both the lay media and the health fraternity literature. Possible reasons for this are that there are only five years remaining until the 2015 deadline to have achieved the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The general impression among health professionals is that there has been slow progress in achie...

background: the occurrence of maternal death would threaten the family foundation and children's health. determining important factors affecting this indicator can help us adopt strategies to prevent similar deaths. the aim of this study was to determine the causes of maternal deaths during childbirth in ilam, iran  in 2001-10. methods: in a descriptive, retrospective study, all 25 dead mothers...