BACKGROUND Most obstetric complications occur unpredictably during the time of delivery, but they can be prevented with proper medical care in the health facilities. Despite the Ethiopian government's efforts to expand health service facilities and promote health institution-based delivery service in the country, an estimated 85% of births still take place at home. OBJECTIVE The review was co...

BACKGROUND India leads all nations in numbers of maternal deaths, with poor, rural women contributing disproportionately to the high maternal mortality ratio. In 2005, India launched the world's largest conditional cash transfer scheme, Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY), to increase poor women's access to institutional delivery, anticipating that facility-based birthing would decrease deaths. Indian...

BACKGROUND Many low-middle income countries have focused on improving access to and quality of obstetric care, as part of promoting a facility based intra-partum care strategy to reduce maternal mortality. The state of Gujarat in India, implements a facility based intra-partum care program through its large for-profit private obstetric sector, under a state-led public-private-partnership, the C...

A retrospective cross-sectional survey was conducted to assess key practices and costs relating to home- and institutional delivery care in rural Rajasthan, India. One block from each of two sample districts was covered (estimated population--279,132). Field investigators listed women who had delivered in the past three months and contacted them for structured case interview. In total, 1947 (96...

Background: While India has made significant progress in reducing maternal mortality, attaining further declines will require increased skilled birth attendance and institutional delivery among marginalized and difficult to reach populations. Methods: A population-based survey was carried out among 16 randomly selected rural villages in rural Mysore District in Karnataka, India between August a...