Integrating water treatment into antenatal care: Impact on use of maternal health services and household water treatment by mothers-rural Uganda, 2013

To increase maternal health service use and household water treatment (HWT), free water treatment kits were provided at first antenatal care (ANC) visits and free water treatment sachet refills were provided at follow-up ANC visits, delivery, and postnatal visits in 46 health facilities in rural Uganda. We evaluated the impact by surveying 226 women in […]

Illness recognition and appropriate care seeking for newborn complications in rural Oromia and Amhara regional states of Ethiopia

Background: Ethiopia has made significant progress in reducing child mortality but newborn mortality has stagnated at around 29 deaths per 1000 births. The Maternal Health in Ethiopia Partnership (MaNHEP) was a 3.5-year implementation project aimed at developing a community-oriented model of maternal and newborn health in rural Ethiopia and to position it for scale up. […]

The status of maternal and newborn health care services in Zanzibar

Background: It is estimated that 287,000 women worldwide die annually from pregnancy and childbirth-related conditions, and 6.9 million under-five children die each year, of which about 3 million are newborns. Most of these deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa. The maternal health situation in Tanzania mainland and Zanzibar is similar to other sub-Saharan countries. This study […]

An account for barriers and strategies in fulfilling women’s right to quality maternal health care: A qualitative study from rural Tanzania

Background: Tanzania has ratified and abides to legal treaties indicating the obligation of the state to provide essential maternal health care as a basic human right. Nevertheless, the quality of maternal health care is disproportionately low. The current study sets to understand maternal health services’ delivery from the perspective of rural health workers’, and to […]

Effects of computerized decision support on maternal and neonatal health-worker performance in the context of combined implementation with performance-based incentivisation in Upper East Region, Ghana: a qualitative study of professional perspectives

Background: Computerized decision support systems (CDSS) and performance-based incentives (PBIs) can improve health-worker performance. However, there is minimal evidence on the combined effects of these interventions or perceived effects among maternal and child healthcare providers in low-resource settings. We thus aimed to explore the perceptions of maternal and child healthcare providers of CDSS support in […]

Individual-level and community-level factors associated with eight or more antenatal care contacts in sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence from 36 sub-Saharan African countries

Objective To reduce maternal mortality, the WHO has been introducing several antenatal care (ANC) measures. Pregnancy-related preventable morbidity and mortality, on the other hand, remain alarmingly high. This study was conducted to estimate the magnitude and the factors associated with eight or more ANC visits in sub-Saharan Africa. Design A population-based, cross-sectional investigation was conducted. […]

Parental awareness of hearing impairment in their school-going children and healthcare seeking behaviour in Kisumu district, Kenya

Background: Hearing-impaired children who are identified early and appropriately managed have improved outcomes in speech, language, cognitive and social development. Enhanced parental awareness of their child’s hearing disability, behavioral, developmental and psychosocial limitations is essential to sustaining timely detection and appropriate intervention. Additionally, availability of services for diagnosis, treatment and habilitation would improve the demand […]

Usability and feasibility of a mobile health system to provide comprehensive antenatal care in low-income countries: PANDA mHealth pilot study in Madagascar

Background: Madagascar’s maternal health mortality ratio in 2013 was 478 deaths per 100,000 live births. Most deaths are related to direct complications during pregnancy and childbirth and could be reduced by providing comprehensive antenatal care (ANC). Objective: The objective of the study was to assess the usability and feasibility of a mobile health system (mHealth) […]

Seroprevalence of Neospora caninum and associated risk factors in intensive or semi-intensively managed dairy and breeding cattle of Ethiopia

A cross-sectional study of Neospora caninum infection was conducted in major milksheds of Ethiopia. Cattle (n= 2334) from 273 farms were bled and the sera screened for antibodies against N. caninum using a commercial ELISA kit. Herd and individual animal level data were collected from farm records and a semi-structured questionnaire format. The overall animal […]

Socio-demographic profiles and anthropometric status of 0- to 71-month-old children and their caregivers in rural districts of the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces of South Africa

Objectives: To determine the nutritional status of 0- to 71-month-old children and their caregivers, as welt as their socio-demographics, in two provinces in South Africa. Design: Cross-sectional baseline survey. Setting: OR Tambo and Alfred Nzo districts in the Eastern Cape (EC), and Umkhanyakude and Zululand (Nongoma and Pongola subdistricts) in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), South Africa. Subjects: […]