Purpose Overall health status indicators have improved significantly over the past three decades in Indonesia. However, the country's maternal mortality ratio remains high with a stark inequality by region. Fewer studies have explored access inequity in maternal health care service over time using multiple inequality markers. In this study, we analyzed Indonesian Demographic and Health Survey (...

Despite sincere efforts by the government and private sector, maternal health outcomes in Bangladesh are not satisfactory. The current maternal mortality ratio (MMR) is 194 per 100,000 live births, which must be reduced to 143 by 2015 to attain the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 5 (NIPORT, MEASURE Evaluation & ICDDR,B, 2011). More worryingly is the low utilization of maternal health services...

................................................................................. 9 ORIGINAL PAPERS I-IV ................................................................ 11 ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................................ 12 DEFINITIONS OF TERMS ............................................................. 13 PREUNDERSTANDING ..................................

Why IMNCH Strategy? • In 2000, at the Millennium Summit held in New York, World Leaders pledged to reduce child mortality and improve maternal health among other Goals (Millennium Development Goals) to ensure human development by the year 2015. Since the millennium declaration, Nigeria and many other countries are not on track to attaining the targets for reducing child mortality and improving ...

BACKGROUND Approximately one-third of a million women die each year from pregnancy-related conditions. Three-quarters of these deaths are considered avoidable. Millennium Development Goal five calls for a reduction in maternal mortality and the establishment of universal access to high quality reproductive health care. There is evidence of a relationship between lower levels of maternal educati...

Focusing on maternal health care, the article explores the path of women's health rights in Brazil since World War II. It presents a historical survey of broader government initiatives in this arena and of the introduction of actions to provide prenatal, birth, and postpartum care, encourage breastfeeding, and establish measures aimed at women during their reproductive lives.

OBJECTIVE To describe the socio-demographic characteristics and the three delays of maternal mortality in a tertiary teaching hospital. STUDY DESIGN Retrospective, observational study. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Unit III, Civil Hospital, Karachi, from April 2005 to May 2008. METHODOLOGY One hundred and four consecutive maternal deaths were review...

BACKGROUND The integration of maternal mental health into primary health care has been advocated to reduce the mental health treatment gap in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This study reports findings of a cross-country situation analysis on maternal mental health and services available in five LMICs, to inform the development of integrated maternal mental health services integrated ...

Religion affects people's daily lives by solving social problems, although it creates others. Female sexual and reproductive health are among the issues most affected by religion. Apostolic sect members in Zimbabwe have been associated with higher maternal mortality. We explored apostolic beliefs and practices on maternal health using 15 key informant interviews in 5 purposively selected distri...

BACKGROUND Maternal mortality continues to have devastating impacts in many societies, where it constitutes a leading cause of death, and thus remains a core issue in international development. Nevertheless, individual determinants of maternal mortality are often unclear and subject to local variation. This study aims to characterise individual risk factors for maternal mortality in Tigray, Eth...