BACKGROUND As part of efforts to reduce maternal deaths in Nigeria, pregnant women are being encouraged to give birth in healthcare facilities. However, little is known about whether or not available healthcare facilities can cope with an increasing demand for obstetric care. We thus carried out this survey as a rapid and tactical assessment of facility quality. We visited 121 healthcare facili...

In the framework of former West German government’s “guest worker” (Gastarbeiter) recruitment policy between 1955 and 1973, more than 11,000 South Korean nurses nurse assistants moved to Germany work in medical or nursing institutions fill a gap provision healthcare services as workers.” Drawing on personal accounts, current empirical study explores mothering practices primarily 1960s 1990s fam...

Background and Objectives Despite advances in modern healthcare, Traditional Birth Attendants (TBA) have continued to be heavily utilized in rural communities in Nigeria. Major disparities in maternal health care in Nigeria remain present despite the goal of the United Nations Millennium Development Goal to reduce maternal mortality by 2015. The objective of this study is to review the contribu...

Pregnant women with substance use disorder (SUD) can face varying degrees of negative interactions healthcare providers, including judgment the individual’s value and involvement in their infant’s care. This research explored potential stigma attitudes among medical providers within a maternal/fetal setting towards maternal SUD. An electronic survey was administered to 117 health care social wo...

Maternal and neonatal mortality in Haiti are among the highest in the world. This study investigated maternal-child health needs in Haiti, using a mixed method approach including qualitative and quantitative data collection. Participants (n=119) comprised of 39 healthcare workers and 80 Haitian women. The focus group centered around three major themes: difficult access to healthcare; health iss...

Low maternal healthcare service utilization contributes to poor maternal and new born health outcomes in rural Zambia. The purpose of this study was to identify important factors influencing women's intention to use these services in Kalomo, Zambia. An interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from 1007 women of reproductive age (15-45 years) from 13 rural health centres w...

INTRODUCTION Utilization of orthodox health facilities for maternal health services is determined by factors operating at the individual, household, community and state level. The prevalence of small family norm is one of the identified variables operating within the community which influences the decision of where to access care (orthodox/traditional). The objective of the study was to determi...