BACKGROUND The lack of reliable and up-to-date statistics on maternal deaths and disabilities remains a major challenge to the implementation of Nigeria's Road Map to Accelerate the Millennium Development Goal related to Maternal Health (MDG-5). There are currently no functioning national data sources on maternal deaths and disabilities that could serve as reference points for programme manager...

BACKGROUND There has been a rapid increase in the publication of guidelines for managing obesity and weight gain during pregnancy over the past five years. Healthcare professionals have identified multiple barriers to this area of practice, including the need to improve their communication skills, beliefs that pregnant women will have negative reactions to weight-related discussions, and a lack...

Empirical literature analyzing the effect of pay-for-performance programs (P4P) for healthcare providers on maternal care and newborn health outcomes is scarce. In 2008, Uruguay’s Ministry Public Health implemented a P4P called Metas Asistenciales (Healthcare Goals), country-wide program that grants an economic incentive complying with certain goals. organizations use these funds to provide chi...

This study investigated the association between women's empowerment and the utilization of maternal health services by women in Egypt and analyzed the dimensions of women's empowerment that are associated with increased health service utilization. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in a village in Egypt in November 2007. A total of 189 women, who had ever been married and had at least one c...

BACKGROUND Uganda's poor maternal health indicators have resulted from weak maternal health services delivery, including access to quality family planning, skilled birth attendance, emergency obstetric care, and postnatal care for mothers and newborns. This paper investigated the predictors of maternal health services (MHS) utilization characterized as: desirable, moderate and undesirable. ME...

OBJECTIVE To identify factors associated with inadequacy of prenatal care utilization in urban community. METHODS A cross-sectional study of a systematic sample stratified by maternity hospital, consisting of hospital births in the municipality of São Luís, Brazil, was carried out from March 1997 to February 1998. Socioeconomic and demographic factors, reproductive health, morbidity during pr...

Improving maternal and newborn health through proper postnatal care services under the care of skilled health personnel is the key strategy to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality. However, there were limited evidences on utilization of postnatal care services in Ethiopia. A community based cross-sectional study was conducted in Debremarkos town, Northwest Ethiopia. Cluster sampling technique...