OBJECTIVE To obtain background information about maternal health and health-seeking behaviors among indigenous mothers living in rural Mam-Mayan communities of Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. METHODS A cross-sectional analysis of 100 pregnant and breastfeeding women in four communities was performed to determine prevalence and determinants of service utilization. RESULTS Extreme poverty, poor ed...

CONTEXT Although the reduction of maternal mortality levels is a key Millennium Development Goal, community-based evidence on obstetric complications and maternal care-seeking behavior remains limited in low-resource countries. METHODS This study presents an overview of key findings from the 2001 Bangladesh Maternal Health Services and Maternal Mortality Survey of ever-married women aged 13-4...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Despite the benefits of maternal health services, these services are often underutilized, especially in the developing countries. The aim of the present study is to provide insight regarding factors affecting maternal health services use from the family perspective. METHODS We use data from the fourth National Health Services Survey in Jiangsu province of Eastern Chi...

Two decades after the Safe Motherhood campaigns 1987 launch in India, half a million women continue to die from pregnancy-related causes every year. Key health-care interventions can largely prevent these deaths, but their use is limited in developing countries, and is reported to vary between population groups. We reviewed the use of maternal health-care interventions in developing countries t...

the effect of postpartum home care on maternal practices in infant care     mirmolaei st [1] , amelvalizadeh m [2] , mahmoodi m [3] , tavakol z * [4]     received: 10 apr, 2012 accepted: 30may, 2012     abstract   background & aims: mothers are the firstattentive for infants, any factor may have impact on mother health, will affect wellbeing of infantandconsequently community health. the aim of...

Background Inequalities in maternal health care are pervasive in the developing world, a fact that has led to questions about the extent of these disparities across socioeconomic groups. Despite a growing literature on maternal health across Sub-Saharan African countries, relatively little is known about the evolution of these inequalities over time for specific countries. This study sought to ...

conclusions: quality of peripartum care is moderate in lorestan province, therefore, continuous evaluation of quality of care by administrators and hospital staff is essential to improve this quality and will ultimately result in maternal and neonatal health improvement. results: the mean percentages of compatibility with desirable situation were 54%, 57% and 66% in first, second and third stag...

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 ...

BACKGROUND This paper explores the multilevel factors associated with maternal health utilization in India's most populous state, Uttar Pradesh. 3 key utilization practices: registration of pregnancy, receipt of antenatal care, and delivery at home are examined for district and individual level predictors. The data is based on 5666 household surveys conducted as part of a baseline evaluation of...