PURPOSE This study evaluated knowledge and practices of childbearing women on key childcare practices within the Safe Motherhood project, administered by the Ntcheu District Health Office in the Republic of Malawi. The study excluded men and elderly women. METHODS The design was cross-sectional, and utilized quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis procedures. Data were also ...

Taking cognisance of the prevailing high maternal and child mortality in the country, India's latest (Eighth) Five Year Plan has adopted an ambitious programme for 'Child Survival and Safe Motherhood (CSSM)'. The major objectives of this programme are the reduction of IMR to 50, underfive mortality to 70, maternal mortality t~ 200, and crude birth rate (CBR) to nine. The targets for service-cov...

Safe motherhood has begun to be identified as a priority for the health of American women. We argue that safe motherhood can be achieved through application of a life course and multiple determinants framework. This framework, with its focus on the preconception period, poses a dilemma in that it links together periods of life and domains of activities that have traditionally not been linked wi...

BACKGROUND Health service fees constitute substantial barriers for women seeking childbirth and postnatal care. In an effort to reduce health inequities, the government of Kenya in 2006 introduced the output-based approach (OBA), or voucher programme, to increase poor women's access to quality Safe Motherhood services including postnatal care. To help improve service quality, OBA programmes pur...

There has been increased interest in and experimentation with demand-side mechanisms such as the use of vouchers that place purchasing power in the hands of targeted consumers to improve the uptake of healthcare services in low-income settings. A key measure of the success of such interventions is the extent to which the programmes have succeeded in reaching the target populations. This article...