Technical interventions for maternal healthcare are implemented through a dynamic social process. Peoples' behaviours--whether they be planners, managers, providers, or potential users--influence the outcomes. Given the complexity and unpredictability inherent in such dynamic processes, the proposed cause-and-effect relationships in any one context cannot be directly transferred to another. Whi...

BACKGROUND Approximately 800 women die of pregnancy-related complications every day. Over half of these deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Most maternal deaths can be prevented with high quality maternal health services. It is well established that use of maternal health services vary by place of residence and socioeconomic status (SES), but few studies have examined the determinants of ...

Alicia Yamin argues that applying human rights frameworks and approaches to maternal health offers strategies and tools to address the root causes of maternal morbidity and mortality within and beyond health systems, in addition to addressing other violations of women's sexual and reproductive health and rights. Please see later in the article for the Editors' Summary.

BACKGROUND Pakistan's Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) Program is faced with multiple challenges in service delivery, financial and logistic management, training and deployment of human resources, and integration within the existing health system. There is a lack of evidence on managerial aspects of the MNCH program management and implementation. METHODS AND FINDINGS This study used ...

Title: The role of health extension workers in improving utilization of maternal health services in rural areas in Ethiopia: a cross sectional study

Despite World Health Organization recommendations that all women deliver with a skilled birth attendant (SBA), research continues to demonstrate large disparities in use of SBAs by socioeconomic status (SES). Yet few quantitative studies empirically examine the factors underlying these disparities, due in part to the fact that current models do not provide clear pathways-with measurable mediato...

background: improving maternal health is one of the eight millennium development goals (mdgs) aimed at improving maternal healthcare and reducing maternal mortality. the utilization of maternal health services is influenced by several factors that need to be better understood. the objective of this study was to estimate the role of socio-economic position as a determinant of the utilization of ...

In this study, we used a narrow, but easily measured, indicator of how communication proceeded among health workers and women in Southern India. Anemia prevention during pregnancy was studied using a semistructured questionnaire. Participants included 5 nurses, 10 health aides, and 10 (traditional birth attendants) TBAs working with maternal health care and education, as well as 32 women seekin...

Drawing on an analysis by Pritchett et al of the "techniques of persistent implementation failure" common across many development sectors, this commentary suggests that health systems attempting to integrate maternal health and HIV services may need to contend with a profound clash of organizational cultures. For decades, countries have been pressed to implement global "best practices" in mater...

The authors briefly analyze the situation of maternal health care in Brazil and, based on their findings, they comment that there have been transformations in the health care model for women and families and propose some measures, including recovery of the work of the obstetric nurse or midwife (obstetriz, in Portuguese). They comment that women care tendencies in the delivery process presuppos...