Maternal & Child Health

Cost-Effectiveness Study of Caesarean-Section Deliveries by Clinical Officers, General Practitioners and Obstetricians in Burkina Faso

This paper evaluates the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of alternative training strategies for increasing access to emergency obstetric care in Burkina Faso. [adapted from abstract]

Mid-Level Providers in Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Health Care: Factors Affecting their Performance and Retention within the Malawian Health System

Mid-level cadres of health workers provide the bulk of emergency obstetric and neonatal care in Malawi. This study set out to explore the perceptions of mid-level providers regarding the factors affecting their performance and retention within the Malawian health system. [adapted from author]

Human Resources and the Quality of Emergency Obstetric Care in Developing Countries: a Systematic Review of the Literature

This paper reports on a systematic literature review exploring the importance of human resources in the quality of emergency obstetric care and thus in the reduction of maternal deaths. [from abstract]

Home and Community-Based Health Care for Mothers and Newborns

Recent efforts to improve maternal health have focused on skilled attendants and emergency care at health facilities. Skilled birth attendants and access to emergency obstetric care are essential to saving mothers lives. In developing countries, 60 million women give birth at home without skilled care and with high maternal and neonatal mortality. Nearly all essential newborn care can be provided safely, effectively, and at a low cost at the household level. The same is true for care of the mother, and many effective interventions can be implemented at the household and community level that will save mothers’ lives.

Quality Improvement for Emergency Obstetric Care: Leadership Manual and Toolbook

The purpose of this newly revised manual and accompanying toolbook is to assist health care providers working in emergency obstetric care (EmOC) settings to improve the quality of services within their facility. With whatever resources are at hand, quality improvement (QI) processes can help staff change and improve practices and conditions and, in so doing, have a significant impact on pregnancy outcomes. [publisher’s description]

Human Resources for Emergency Obstetric Care in Northern Tanzania: Distribution of Quantity or Quality?

The goal of this article is to evaluate the current status of human resources quality, availability and distribution in Northern Tanzania in order to provide emergency obstetric care services to specific districts in this area. It also discusses the usefulness of distribution indicators for describing equity in the decision-making process. [from abstract]