BACKGROUND Improving maternal health is one of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) aimed at improving maternal healthcare and reducing maternal mortality. The utilization of maternal health services is influenced by several factors that need to be better understood. The objective of this study was to estimate the role of socio-economic position as a determinant of the utilization of m...

BACKGROUND The huge proportion of child marriage contributes to high rates of pregnancies among adolescent girls in Bangladesh. Despite substantial progress in reducing maternal mortality in the last two decades, the rate of adolescent pregnancy remains high. The use of skilled maternal health services is still low in Bangladesh. Several quantitative studies described the use of skilled materna...

BACKGROUND Prenatal and postnatal visits are two effective interventions for protection and promotion of maternal health by reducing maternal mortality and improving the quality of birth. There is limited nationally representative data regarding the changes of prenatal and postnatal visits since the latest health system reform initiated in 2009 in Shaanxi, China. The aim of this study was to ex...

BACKGROUND Every day approximately 1500 women worldwide die due to pregnancy or childbirth related complications. Maternal health care use is critical in reducing maternal mortality worldwide. Cameroon has one of the highest maternal mortality rates worldwide, but there is little knowledge about maternal health care use in Cameroon, particularly in more remote areas. The purpose of this study w...

BACKGROUND Wars affect maternal health services by destroying health systems. Eritrea experienced two wars with neighbouring Ethiopia. Despite this, the maternal mortality ratio (MMR) in Eritrea fell by 69% from 1590 per 100,000 live births in 1990 to 501 in 2015. This study aimed to examine facilitators of and barriers to the utilisation of and access to maternal health services in Eritrea. ...

This paper seeks to identify the determinants of the choice of treatment of pregnant women in Cameroon. Theoretically, the methodology is based on a discrete choice model with random utility. Empirically, the econometric specification is a Nested Multinomial Logit Model. The data used comes from the Demographic Health Survey (DHS) organized in 2011 by the National Institute of Statistics. The r...

background: in some primary health care settings, even where the health services are not available, provisions are not made to ensure continuity of care. this study aimed to determine the availability and level of continuity of care for maternal health services in the primary health centers (phcs) in nnewi, nigeria. methods: this was a cross‑sectional survey. using multistage sampling technique...

BACKGROUND Approximately 800 women die of pregnancy-related complications every day. Over half of these deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Most maternal deaths can be prevented with high quality maternal health services. It is well established that use of maternal health services vary by place of residence and socioeconomic status (SES), but few studies have examined the determinants of ...

This case study analyzes the design and implementation of the Basic Package of Health Services (BPHS) in Afghanistan by synthesizing the literature with a focus on maternal health services. The authors are a group of graduate students in the Brandeis University International Health Policy and Management Program and Sustainable International Development Program who used the experience in Afghani...

background: high cesarean section rate is a major health problem in developing countries. this study was established to evaluate the effectiveness of iranian ministry of health and medical education protocols on cesarean section rate trend. methods: through a non-concurrent controlled quasi-experimental study, cesarean section rate in shohada-e-tajrish and taleghani hospitals in tehran was comp...