Comparative prevalence of hepatitis B virus infection among pregnant women accessing free maternal care in a tertiary hospital in Ghana
Hepatitis B virus infection is endemic in sub-Saharan Africa, and accounts for a significant proportion of morbidities and mortalities in Ghana. Infection with HBV during pregnancy can result in life-threatening complications to both mother and child. To improve their quality of life, the free maternal care was introduced to grant pregnant women cost-free access to […]
Cultural beliefs and practices of women influencing home births in rural Northern Ghana
Background: One of the maternal health care strategies identified by the World Health Organization as being crucial for saving lives of pregnant women, which also serves as an indicator for progress in reducing maternal mortality, is the provision and utilization of skilled birth care. Despite the importance of skilled birth care in preventing maternal morbidity […]
Learning from changes concurrent with implementing a complex and dynamic intervention to improve urban maternal and perinatal health in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 2011-2019
Introduction Rapid urbanisation in Dar es Salaam, the main commercial hub in Tanzania, has resulted in congested health facilities, poor quality care, and unacceptably high facility-based maternal and perinatal mortality. Using a participatory approach, the Dar es Salaam regional government in partnership with a non-governmental organisation, Comprehensive Community Based Rehabilitation in Tanzania, implemented a complex, […]
Distribution of maternity waiting homes and their correlation with perinatal mortality and direct obstetric complication rates in Ethiopia
Background: Ethiopia has been expanding maternity waiting homes to bridge geographical gaps between health facilities and communities in order to improve access to skilled care. In 2015, the Ministry of Health revised its national guidelines to standardize the rapid expansion of waiting homes. Little has been done to document their distribution, service availability and readiness. […]
Is a woolen cap effective in maintaining normothermia in low-birth-weight infants during kangaroo mother care? Study protocol for a randomized controlled trial
Background: Neonatal hypothermia is an important challenge associated with morbidity and mortality. Preventing neonatal hypothermia is important in high-resource countries, but is of fundamental importance in low-resource settings where supportive care is limited. Kangaroo mother care (KMC) is a low-cost intervention that, whenever possible, is strongly recommended for temperature maintenance. During KMC, the World Health […]
Association between maternal mortality and caesarean section in Ethiopia: A national cross-sectional study
Background: Several studies concluded that there is a reduction of maternal deaths with improved access to caesarean section, while other studies showed the existence of a direct association between the two variables. In Ethiopia, literature about the association between maternal mortality and caesarean section is scarce. This study was aimed to assess the association between […]
Household food insecurity, coping strategies, and nutritional status of pregnant women in rural areas of Northern Ghana
There is limited information on the magnitude and determinants of household food insecurity (HFI) and how it relates to the nutritional status of pregnant women in Northern Ghana. The magnitude, determinants of HFI, and how it relates to the nutritional status of pregnant women were evaluated in the Africa RISING West Africa project intervention communities […]
The development of children born to young mothers with no, first- or second-generation HIV acquisition in the Eastern Cape province, South Africa: a cross-sectional study
Background The intergenerational effects of HIV require long-term investigation. We compared developmental outcomes of different generations impacted by HIV – children of mothers not living with HIV, the ‘second generation’ (ie, with recently infected mothers) and the ‘third generation’ (ie, children of perinatally infected mothers). Methods A cross-sectional community sample of N=1015 young mothers (12-25 […]
Assessing coverage, equity and quality gaps in maternal and neonatal care in sub-Saharan Africa: An integrated approach
Background: Gaps in coverage, equity and quality of health services hinder the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5 in most countries of sub-Saharan Africa as well as in other high-burden countries, yet few studies attempt to assess all these dimensions as part of the situation analysis. We present the base-line data of […]
Institutional maternal and perinatal deaths: A review of 40 low and middle income countries
Background: Understanding the magnitude and clinical causes of maternal and perinatal mortality are basic requirements for positive change. Facility-based information offers a contextualized resource for clinical and organizational quality improvement. We describe the magnitude of institutional maternal mortality, causes of death and cause-specific case fatality rates, as well as stillbirth and pre-discharge neonatal death rates. […]
