Growing inequities in maternal health in South Africa: A comparison of serial national household surveys

Background: Rates of maternal mortality and morbidity vary markedly, both between and within countries. Documenting these variations, in a very unequal society like South Africa, provides useful information to direct initiatives to improve services. The study describes inequalities over time in access to maternal health services in South Africa, and identifies differences in maternal health […]

Towards elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV in Ghana: An analysis of national programme data

Background: Despite global scale up of interventions for Preventing Mother to child HIV Transmissions (PMTCT), there still remain high pediatric HIV infections, which result from unequal access in resource-constrained settings. Sub-Saharan Africa alone contributes more than 90 % of global Mother-to-Child Transmission (MTCT) burden. As part of efforts to address this, African countries (including Ghana) […]

Understanding the relationship between access to care and facility-based delivery through analysis of the 2008 Ghana Demographic Health Survey

Objective To determine the types of access to care most strongly associated with facility-based delivery among women in Ghana. Methods Data relating to the “5 As of Access” framework were extracted from the 2008 Ghana Demographic Health Survey and analyzed using multivariate logistic regression. Results In all, 55.5% of a weighted sample of 1102 women […]

Maternal health after Ebola: Unmet needs and barriers to healthcare in rural Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone has the world’s highest estimated maternal mortality. Following the 2014-16 Ebola outbreak, we described health outcomes and health-seeking behaviour amongst pregnant women to inform health policy. In October 2016-January 2017, we conducted a sequential mixed-methods study in urban and rural areas of Tonkolili District comprising: household survey targeting women who had given birth […]

Ethnicity, gender, and migration status: Applying intersectionality methodology to explore barriers to equitable health systems for maternal and newborn health among immigrant populations in Masindi, Uganda

Globally, 298,000 women die due to pregnancy related causes and half of this occurs in Africa. In Uganda, maternal mortality has marginally reduced from 526 to 336 per 100,000 live births between 2001 and 2016. Health facility delivery is an important factor in improving maternal and neonatal outcomes. However, the concept of using a skilled […]

The HIV paradox: Perinatal mortality is lower in HIV-positive mothers—A field case–control study in Ethiopia

Objective: Sub-Saharan African countries have the highest perinatal mortality rates. Although HIV is a risk factor for perinatal death, antioretroviral therapy (ART) programs have been associated with better outcomes. We aimed to investigate how maternal HIV affects perinatal mortality. Methods: The authors performed a nested case–control study at Saint Luke Hospital, Wolisso, Ethiopia. Data on […]

Geographic information system-based evaluation of spatial accessibility to maternal health facilities in Siaya County, Kenya

Maternal mortality is a major problem in middle-income and low-income countries, and the availability and accessibility of healthcare facilities offering safe delivery is important in averting maternal deaths. Siaya County, in Kenya, has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the country—far more than the national average. This study aimed to evaluate geographic access […]

ICTs and maternal healthcare utilization. Evidence from Ghana

Purpose – Traditionally, the role of technology on health services has been argued from the supply side. The purpose of this paper is to use a demand side perspective to examine the effect of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) on the use of maternal health services in Ghana. Design/methodology/approach – Study used data from the […]

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