BACKGROUND The maternal health system in Ethiopia links health posts in rural communities (kebeles) with district (woreda) health centres, and health centres with primary hospitals. At each health post two Health Extension Workers (HEWs) assist women with birth preparedness, complication readiness, and mobilize communities to facilitate timely referral to mid-level service providers. This study...

BACKGROUND After more than two decades of the Safe Motherhood Initiative and Millennium Development Goals aimed at reducing maternal mortality, women continue to die in childbirth at unacceptably high rates in Pakistan. While an extensive literature describes various programmatic strategies, it neglects the rigorous analysis of the reasons these strategies have been unsuccessful, especially for...

Proportion of women giving birth in health institutions has increased sharply in India since the introduction of cash incentive program, Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) in 2005. JSY was intended to benefit disadvantaged population who had poor access to institutional care for childbirth and who bore the brunt of maternal deaths. Increase in institutional deliveries following the implementation of ...

Reduction in maternal mortality has not been appreciable in most low-income countries. Improved access to transport for mothers is one way to improve maternal health. This study evaluated a free-of-charge 24-hour ambulance and communication services intervention in Oyam district using 'Caesarean section rate' (CSR) and compared with the neighbouring non-intervention district. Ecological data we...

OBJECTIVES To better understand the individual and community factors and perceptions that influence women's health care-seeking behaviors during pregnancy in order to increase women's utilization of maternal health services. METHODS This study investigates the logistical and sociocultural barriers influencing women's utilization of maternal health services through 37 semi-structured in-depth ...

This paper uses Demographic and Health Surveys data from 21 countries in sub-Saharan Africa to examine the use of maternal health services by teenagers. A comparison of maternal health care between teenagers and older women, based on bivariate analysis shows little variation in maternal health care by age. However, after controlling for the effect of background factors such as parity, premarita...

introduction: breastfeeding self-efficacy show self-confidence and the ability of mothers to perform breastfeeding and maternal health literacy, ability of women to gain access to, understand, and use information in ways that promote and maintain their health and their children. aim: this study was measuring associations between self-efficacy breastfeeding and maternal health literacy. methods:...

This study aimed to determine the associations between socio-demographic factors, maternal health knowledge and husband domestic support and last pregnancy problems among reproductive age women (aged 15-49 years) in Bahuni, Morang, Nepal. Data were collected during February and March 2010 from 144 women who had at least one child <5 years old. The women completed a questionnaire designed to eli...

BACKGROUND Rwanda has achieved great improvements in several key health indicators, including maternal mortality and other health outcomes. This raises the question: what has made this possible, and what makes Rwanda so unique? METHODS We describe the results of a web-based survey among district health managers in Rwanda who gave their personal opinions on the factors that drive performance i...

INTRODUCTION The Government of Gujarat has for the past couple of decades continuously initiated several interventions to improve access to care for pregnant and delivering women within the state. Data from the last District Family Heath survey in Gujarat in 2007-2008 show that 56.4% of women had institutional deliveries and 71.5% had at least one antenatal check-up, indicating that challenges ...