T he slow and steady erosion of rural maternity and surgical services over the past 2 decades has been met with a determined push back from care providers, administrators, and those living in rural areas, underscored by efforts to create an evidence base to inform policy and planning.1 The loss of rural maternity care programs in particular has resonated deeply with stakeholders and has attract...

background & aim: prenatal care is a key strategy for achieving public health goals, primary healthcare objectives, and the millennium development goals. the aim of this study was to investigate the factors influencing the use of prenatal care services in order to design suitable interventions and promote the use of these services. methods:in this systematic quantitative literature review, stud...

OBJECTIVE to gain more insight in the perceptions and experiences of care providers and clients with the organisation of emergency transfer in maternity care, with regard to transportation, responsibilities and communication between caregivers. BACKGROUND in the Netherlands a woman with an uncomplicated pregnancy can choose to give birth at home, assisted by her own midwife. However, when com...

In the United States, according to almost every measure, we do not have enough trained maternity care providers to meet the need. Family physicians are the logical choice to help provide that care, particularly in underserved settings. Advanced training through family medicine obstetrics fellowship programs has proven successful in preparing physicians to provide the full scope of maternity car...

Although policies and programs exist to promote safe motherhood in sub-Saharan Africa, maternal health has not improved and may be deteriorating in some countries. Part of the explanation may be the adverse effects of HIV/AIDS on maternity care. We conducted a study in Kisumu, Kenya to explore how fears related to HIV/AIDS affect women's uptake and health workers' provision of labor and deliver...

OBJECTIVE To develop and validate a new instrument that assesses women's autonomy and role in decision making during maternity care. DESIGN Through a community-based participatory research process, service users designed, content validated, and administered a cross-sectional quantitative survey, including 31 items on the experience of decision-making. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS Pregnancy expe...