BACKGROUND The benefits of maternal health care to maternal and neonatal health outcomes have been well documented. Antenatal care attendance, institutional delivery and skilled attendance at delivery all help to improve maternal and neonatal health. However, use of maternal health services is still very low in developing countries with high maternal mortality including Ethiopia. This study exa...

objective: to compare maternal complications and labor outcome in obese and non-obese women. materials and methods: it is a retrospective comparative study conducted at the department of obstetrics and gynecology, unit 1, civil hospital, karachi from december 2008 to december 2009. a sample size of 220 gravid women is selected by non probability convenience sampling technique. in these 110 obes...

BACKGROUND There is a growing movement, globally and in the Africa region, to reduce financial barriers to health care generally, but with particular emphasis on high priority services and vulnerable groups. OBJECTIVE This article reports on the experience of implementing a national policy to exempt women from paying for delivery care in public, mission and private health facilities in Ghana....

INTRODUCTION The drive toward universal health coverage (UHC) is central to the post 2015 agenda, and is incorporated as a target in the new Sustainable Development Goals. However, it is recognised that an equity dimension needs to be included when progress to this goal is monitored. WHO have developed a monitoring framework which proposes a target of 80% coverage for all populations regardless...

BACKGROUND This paper aims to identify factors that influence the capacity of women to voice their concerns regarding maternal health services at the local level. METHODS A secondary analysis was conducted of the data from three studies carried out between 2013 and 2015 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in the context of a WOTRO initiative to improve maternal health services throu...

BACKGROUND Maternal mortality continues to be a heavy burden in low and middle income countries where half of all deliveries take place in homes without skilled attendance. The study aimed to investigate the underlying and proximate determinants of health facility childbirth in rural and urban areas of three districts in Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia. METHODS A population-based survey was conduc...

BACKGROUND Kenya has a high maternal mortality rate. Provision of skilled delivery plays a major role in reducing maternal mortality. Cost is a hindrance to the utilization of skilled delivery. The Government of Kenya introduced a policy of free delivery services in government facilities beginning June 2013. We sought to determine the impact of this intervention on facility based deliveries in ...

CONTEXT Although the reduction of maternal mortality levels is a key Millennium Development Goal, community-based evidence on obstetric complications and maternal care-seeking behavior remains limited in low-resource countries. METHODS This study presents an overview of key findings from the 2001 Bangladesh Maternal Health Services and Maternal Mortality Survey of ever-married women aged 13-4...

BACKGROUND High maternal mortality in India is a serious public health challenge. Demand side financing interventions have emerged as a strategy to promote access to emergency obstetric care. Two such state run programs, Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY)and Chiranjeevi Yojana (CY), were designed and implemented to reduce financial access barriers that preclude women from obtaining emergency obstetri...

BACKGROUND To measure socioeconomic inequalities in maternal health services in rural western China and to analyze the determinants' contributions of inequalities. STUDY DESIGN a cross-sectional study. METHODS The data utilized in this study were obtained from a cross-sectional study from 10 provinces in rural Western China in 2005. Wealth index of household socioeconomic status was develop...