Maternal & Child Health

A study from rural Tanzania shows that health workers usually don’t do the investigations that are required to identify some of the deadly illnesses that could be diagnosed and treat. [adapted from author]

This presentation covers: global trends for maternal and childe survival; determinants of MDGs; current knowledge on what works and the role of human resources for health; and the role of innovations in scaling up. [adapted from author]

This guide is intended for health-care workers, program managers and policy-makers who are responsible for the quality of maternal health care within a health-care facility or of the entire health system. It presents a standard approach for monitoring the implementation of critical interventions in maternal health care and proposes a systematic process for assessing the quality of care. In its entirety, the included methods and related processes constitute the WHO maternal near-miss approach. [from introduction]

This article evaluates an intensive three-month course developed to train non-physician clinicians for remote health centres to address the unmet need for emergency obstetrical care in rural areas.

This paper presents data on the views of midwives from one maternity unit in England following the introduction of an organisation wide quality improvement initiative to improve in-patient postnatal care and processes to transfer women home. As quality improvement initiatives are highly influenced by the context into which they are introduced and by the processes of implementation, our findings may support others to address how clinician engagement could be enhanced. [adapted from author]

This report uses a human rights framework to examine accountability for maternal health care. It sets out several specific steps that South African and Eastern Cape governments should take to better integrate accountability into maternal health care programs and ensure their implementation through the health system. [from author]

This brief outlines a project whose objective was to have health and family planning field workers from the government and from nongovernmental organizations distribute misoprostol tablets to pregnant women in Tangail District in central Bangladesh, to assess the approach’s effectiveness, and to gather lessons learned and provide recommendations for national scale-up. [adapted from author]

This profile summarises the available information on the cadres working
at community level in Bangladesh; their diversity, distribution, supervisory structures, education and training, as well as the policy and regulations that govern their practice. [from summary]

This strategy document introduces the issue of female genital mutilation (FGM) as it relates to health workers, the scale of the problem in the medical field, challenges to be addressed concerning medicalization of FGM, and strategies to accelerate progress from health care providers and national authorities. [adapted from author]

The overall objective of this study was to evaluate if a facilitation intervention on the community level, with a problem-solving approach involving local representatives if the healthcare system and the community, results in improvements of neonatal health and survival. [adapted from abstract]

This profile summarises the available information on the cadres working at community level in the Philippines; their diversity, distribution, supervisory structures, education and training, as well as the policy and regulations that govern their practice. [from summary]

This profile summarises the available information on the cadres working at community level in Vanuatu: their diversity, distribution, supervisory structures, education and training, as well as the policy and regulations that govern their practice.

This profile summarises the available information on the cadres working at community level in Indonesia; their diversity, distribution, supervisory structures, education and training, as well as the policy and regulations that govern their practice. [from summary]

This profile summarises the available information on the cadres working at community level in the Solomon Islands: their diversity, distribution, supervisory structures, education and training, as well as the policy and regulations that govern their practice. [from summary]

This paper focuses on the collection and use of strategic information on human resources for health for decision making and performance monitoring to achieve the MDGs for maternal and child health. It collected and analyzed cross-nationally comparable data on HRH availability, distribution, roles and functions from new and existing sources, and information from country reviews of HRH interventions that are associated with positive impacts on health services delivery and population health outcomes. [from author]

This profile summarises the available information on the cadres working at community level in Fiji – their diversity, distribution, supervisory structures, education and training, as well as the policy and regulations that govern their practice. [from summary]

The purpose of this paper is to describe implementation and impact of a community-based prenatal care trial on the utilization of prenatal care and perinatal outcomes in China. [adapted from abstract]

This report summarizes the best available evidence regarding the design and implementation of policies for extending the use of non-medically trained primary health care workers (task shifting) to deliver cost-effective maternal and child health interventions. [from preface]

This study examined whether a pictorial set of job aids could improve the quality of maternal and newborn care counseling by skilled providers and whether similar performance levels could be achieved by clinic-based lay providers as part of a task shifting initiative to expand their role. [from author]

This brief outlines a collaborative to improve health worker performance and improve the quality and efficiency of maternal care services by building the capacity of local management and health workers to implement sustainable improvements in maternal care provided in Tahoua. [adapted from author]

This report considers the available evidence about the relationship between staffing levels and deployment practices and safety of care for mothers and babies. In so doing, the report considers different staffing models and approaches.

The toolkit describes a process of implementing community empowerment in maternal and neonate health (MNH) and each step of the process, including guidelines and training manuals for the implementation process. The aim of this toolkit is to provide an example of possible best practice in community mobilisation to compliment medical based initiatives to reduce maternal death. [adapted from author]

This report links the high rates of maternal mortality with the health worker crisis in fragile states1. It explores the causes of maternal death, highlighting where and why these deaths are occurring. It also contrasts the need to fund health workers and strengthen health systems with the present aid allocations to health. [from author]

This article provides key lessons learned from a large-scale community-based efficacy trial of a two-tiered system of community-based workers to deliver a package of essential maternal and newborn-care interventions and one of three umbilical cord-care regimens in Bangladesh.

Despite the importance of accurate information about health service personnel and the context in which they practise, little is known about providers at the community level. The purpose of this discussion paper is to describe information flows and gaps concerning the workforce that provide maternal, neonatal and reproductive health care and services at community level; discuss potential stakeholders’ HRH information needs and uses; and provide recommendations for improving the availability, quality and use of HRH information. [from introduction]

This report documents how the use of performance and quality improvement (PQI), a technique for achieving desired performance at service delivery sites and within communities, has helped to improve skilled attendance, and shares some lessons learned about how best to use PQI in safe motherhood programs. [adapted from aouthor]

The high perinatal and neonatal mortality rates in Pakistan are partially attributable to scarcity of trained skilled birth attendants and paucity of resources. Empowerment of health care providers with adequate knowledge and skills can serve as instrument of change. This training needs assessment analysis of the public health sector of Pakistan aims to recognize gaps in the processes and quality of MNCH care provided. [adapted from author]

This qualitative descriptive study explored the perspectives and experiences of midwives, assistant physicians and medical doctors on the content and quality of maternal health care in rural Vietnam. [from abstract]

This paper shows how Yemen’s Al Saba’een Hospital became a model for postpartum care and family planning services with limited resources. As a result of the success, the Yemeni government supports continued scale-up of these interventions to all of the country’s public hospitals and rural health facilities. [adapted from author]

This paper shows how the Extending Service Delivery improve maternal and newborn health in Egypt’s Kaliobia Governorate by scaling-up the government’s postpartum care package in 13 villages, and training community health workers and nurses to put the package into practice. [from author]