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...

Over the last few decades, maternal health has been a major focus of the international community and this has resulted in a substantial decrease in maternal mortality globally. Although, compared with maternal illness, medical and surgical emergencies account for far more morbidity and mortality, there has been less focus on global efforts to improve comprehensive emergency systems. The thought...

BACKGROUND Increasing the percentage of maternal health service utilization in health facilities, through cost-removal policy is important in reducing maternal deaths. The Cross River State Government of Nigeria introduced a cost-removal policy in 2009, under the umbrella of "PROJECT HOPE" where free maternal health services are provided. Since its inception, there has been no formal evaluation...

assessing quality of family health services in view points of service users in urmia health posts   nabilou b[1],farokh eslamlou hr[2]*   received: 1 may , 2013 accepted: 2 jul , 2013   abstract background & aims:  community health largely depend on the primary health care sector of each country and primary healthcare including family health, as first contact services have basic role in health ...

BACKGROUND Given the shortage of medical professionals in the Philippines, Barangay Health Workers (BHWs) may play a role in providing postpartum healthcare services. However, as there are no reports regarding BHW activities in postpartum healthcare, we conducted this study to understand postpartum healthcare services and to explore the challenges and motivations of maternal health service prov...

Maternal health across Papua New Guinea (PNG) is of extreme public health concern. In response, the National Department of Health explicitly prioritized improving maternal, neonatal and child health services, envisaging increased collaboration between the formal health system and community-based initiatives as one method for achieving this. This study examined the patterns of formal and non-for...

The success of Nepal's community-based health programmes in promoting maternal and child health has been achieved due to an overall improvement in service delivery facilities and health support systems. This article assesses the progress made by the Government of Nepal in improving health service delivery by introducing three key components: an improved health logistics management, facility-bas...

Despite promotion by many stakeholders to improve maternal health outcome in many developing countries including Malawi, many analysts agree that the utmost success in maternal health will arise if maternal health care services are an unparallel led source for women's health care solutions for any problem related to childbirth. Health advocates worldwide claim that even though maternal services...

Background Despite increased access to treatment and reduced incidence, vertical transmission of HIV continues to pose a risk to maternal and child health in sub-Saharan Africa. Performance-based financing (PBF) directed at healthcare providers has shown potential to improve quantity and quality of maternal and child health services. However, the ways in which these PBF initiatives lead to impr...

It is widely understood that maternal health care relies on the entire health system. However, little empirical, country-specific, research has been done to trace out the ways in which health system elements can shape maternal health outcomes. This study seeks to redress this situation, by providing an example of how a health systems approach can benefit the understanding of maternal health ser...