Contextualising maternal health in countries with high maternal mortality is vital for designing and implementing effective health interventions. A research project was therefore conducted to explore practices, beliefs and traditions around pregnancy, delivery and postpartum in southeast Madagascar. Interviews and focus groups were conducted with 256 pregnant women, mothers of young children, c...

Recognizing the need for evidence to inform US Government and governments of the low- and middle-income countries on efficient, effective maternal health policies, strategies, and programmes, the US Government convened the Evidence Summit on Enhancing Provision and Use of Maternal Health Services through Financial Incentives in April 2012 in Washington, DC, USA. This paper summarizes the backgr...

Every day, nearly 800 women die from complications of pregnancy and childbirth. A great many of these deaths are preventable; however, there is no single, straightforward solution. Because identifi cation of every woman who will have a life-threatening complication during pregnancy or childbirth is impossible, saving of women's lives during pregnancy and childbirth needs a systems approach with...

BACKGROUND Health system strengthening is critical to ensure the integration and scaling-up of priority health promotion, disease prevention and control programs. Normative guidelines are available to address health system function imbalances while strategic and analytical frameworks address critical functions in complex systems. Tacit knowledge-based health system constructs can help identify ...

Despite a five decade old Family Welfare programme, India still continues to contribute almost a quarter of the global estimates of maternal morbidity and mortality. Quality aspects in maternal health care have long been ignored in the Indian public health system. It is only with the launch of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) that quality of care has been accorded due recognition at the...

OBJECTIVES In recent years, the government of the Philippines embarked upon an ambitious Universal Health Care program, underpinned by the rapid scale-up of subsidized insurance coverage for poor and vulnerable populations. With a view of reducing the stubbornly high maternal mortality rates in the country, the program has a strong focus on maternal health services and is supported by a nationa...

the aim of this study was to test the model of the relationship between violence against women and aggressive behavior in children with mediation of maternal mental health. research design was correlation and path analysis. the study population included all of preschool children¢s mothers at the city of dezful. the sample was consisted of 250 pre-school children¢s mothers. that selected by mult...

Background & aim: Maternal health literacy is defined as the cognitive and social skills determining the ability to get access to, understand, and use information to promote mothers’ health and that of their children. This study aimed to investigate maternal health literacy in pregnant women referred to the healthcare centers of Mashhad, Iran. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted o...

This qualitative study investigated the influence of family support on women's health-seeking behavior in rural southern Egypt (Upper Egypt). We carried out separate focus group discussions (FGDs) with 3 groups (6 women with children under 5 years old, 6 men, and 4 elderly women, respectively) in a village in Assiut Governorate, an underprivileged region in Upper Egypt. The FGDs aimed to identi...

BACKGROUND Antenatal Care (ANC), use of skilled delivery attendants and postnatal care (PNC) services are key maternal health services that can significantly reduce maternal mortality. Understanding the factors that affect service utilization helps to design appropriate strategies and policies towards improvement of service utilization and thereby reduce maternal mortality. The objective of thi...