A cross sectional comparison of postnatal care quality in facilities participating in a maternal health voucher program versus non-voucher facilities in Kenya

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 […]

Impact of results-based financing on effective obstetric care coverage: Evidence from a quasi-experimental study in Malawi

Background: Results-based financing (RBF) describes health system approaches addressing both service quality and use. Effective coverage is a metric measuring progress towards universal health coverage (UHC). Although considered a means towards achieving UHC in settings with weak health financing modalities, the impact of RBF on effective coverage has not been explicitly studied. Methods: Malawi introduced […]

Comparative study of the effect of National Health Insurance Scheme on use of delivery and antenatal care services between rural and urban women in Ghana

Background: Despite the focus of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to bridge healthcare utilisation gap among women in Ghana, recent evidence indicates that most maternal deaths still occur from rural Ghana. The objective of this study was to examine the rural-urban differences in the effects of NHIS enrolment on delivery care utilisation (place of […]

The Parental Overprotection Scale: Associations with child and parental anxiety

Background Parental overprotection has commonly been implicated in the development and maintenance of childhood anxiety disorders. Overprotection has been assessed using questionnaire and observational methods interchangeably; however, the extent to which these methods access the same construct has received little attention. Edwards et al. (2008, 2010) developed a promising parent-report measure of overprotection (OP) and […]

Effect of enhanced reminders on postnatal clinic attendance in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: a cluster randomized controlled trial

Background: Failure to attend maternal health services is an intractable challenge for the health-care system in low- and middle-income countries. The use of technology for reminding patients about their appointments has been demonstrated to be an effective (future) tool toward increased health care services utilization in developing countries, such as Ethiopia. Objective: We aimed to […]

Task sharing of a psychological intervention for maternal depression in Khayelitsha, South Africa: Study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Background: Maternal depression carries a major public health burden for mothers and their infants, yet there is a substantial treatment gap for this condition in low-resourced regions such as sub-Saharan Africa. To address this treatment gap, the strategy of “task sharing” has been proposed, involving the delivery of interventions by non-specialist health workers trained and […]

Evaluating implementation effectiveness and sustainability of a maternity waiting homes intervention to improve access to safe delivery in rural Zambia: A mixed-methods protocol

Background: In low-income countries such as Zambia, where maternal mortality rates are persistently high, maternity waiting homes (MWHs) represent one potential strategy to improve access to safe delivery, especially for women living in remote areas. The Maternity Homes Access in Zambia project (MAHMAZ) is evaluating the impact of a MWH model on women’s access to […]

Community-level interventions for pre-eclampsia (CLIP) in Mozambique: A cluster randomised controlled trial

Objectives: Pregnancy hypertension is the third leading cause of maternal mortality in Mozambique and contributes significantly to fetal and neonatal mortality. The objective of this trial was to assess whether task-sharing care might reduce adverse pregnancy outcomes related to delays in triage, transport, and treatment. Study design: The Mozambique Community-Level Interventions for Pre-eclampsia (CLIP) cluster […]

Effects of short birth interval on neonatal, infant and under-five child mortality in Ethiopia: A nationally representative observational study using inverse probability of treatment weighting

Objective To assess the effect of short birth interval (SBI) on neonatal, infant, and under-five mortality in Ethiopia. Design A nationally representative cross-sectional survey. Setting This study used data from the Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey 2016. Participants A total of 8448 women who had at least two live births during the 5 years preceding […]

Effects of continuity of maternal health services on immediate newborn care practices, Northwestern Ethiopia: multilevel and propensity score matching (PSM) modeling

Background: Despite priority being given to maternal and child health programs in Ethiopia, the reduction of neonatal mortality rate is stagnant, which is more than double the national target. Immediate newborn care and continuity of maternal health services are comprehensive, wide-ranging, and core strategies to overcome neonatal mortality and morbidity. However, the evidence of immediate […]