The time is right to shift the focus of the global maternal health community to the challenges of effective implementation of services within districts. 20 years after the launch of the Safe Motherhood Initiative, the community has reached a broad consensus about priority interventions, incorporated these interventions into national policy documents, and organised globally in coalition with the...

OBJECTIVE there is little evidence about disabled women׳s access to maternal and newborn health services in low-income countries and few studies consult disabled women themselves to understand their experience of care and care seeking. Our study explores disabled women׳s experiences of maternal and newborn care in rural Nepal. DESIGN we used a qualitative methodology, using semi-structured in...

In Nepal, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, policy focused on improving access to maternity services has led to measures to reduce cost barriers impeding women's access to care. Specifically, these include cash transfer or voucher schemes designed to stimulate demand for services, including antenatal, delivery and post-partum care. In spite of their popularity, however, little is known about the ...

OBJECTIVE This paper argues for an additional indicator for measuring progress of the Millennium Development Goal for maternal health-the availability of emergency obstetric care. METHODS MDG monitoring will be based on two indicators: the maternal mortality ratio and the proportion of births attended by skilled personnel. Strengths and weaknesses of a third indicator are discussed RESULTS ...

More than two decades after the launch of the Safe Motherhood Initiative (Nairobi 1987) , maternal health in many developing countries has shown little or no improvement. Year after year, more than half a million mothers continue to die in silence. The specificities of the complex cross-cutting issue only partly explain why tireless efforts have led to insufficient progress so far. While some s...

providing and promoting the health is one of the most fundamental human social evolution dimensions, that perhaps more than other aspects of development needs public cooperation. health volunteers are pioneers who have volunteered to step in providing and improving community health. the present study determines the role of health volunteers in maternal indicators of pakdasht health network. thi...

BACKGROUND South Africa is increasingly focused on reducing maternal mortality. Documenting variation in access to maternal health services across one of the most inequitable nations could assist in re-direction of resources. METHODS Analysis draws on a population-based household survey that used multistage-stratified sampling. Women, who in the past two years were pregnant (1113) or had a ch...

To promote the utilization of maternal health services and reduce financial barriers, the Laos government introduced its "Free Maternal Health Services Policy" in 2012. This policy provides free maternal health services for pregnant women, which includes costs related to treatment, transportation, food fees, referral and an incentive for four antenatal care appointments. This study aims to asce...

BACKGROUND Despite the avoidable nature of maternal mortality, unacceptably high numbers of maternal deaths occur in developing countries. Considering its preventability, maternal mortality is being increasingly recognised as a human rights issue. Integration of a human rights perspective in maternal health programmes could contribute positively in eliminating avertable maternal deaths. This st...