Maternal & Child Health

This profile summarises the available information on the cadres working at community level in Papua New Guinea: their diversity, distribution, supervisory structures, education and training, as well as the policy and regulations that govern their practice. [from author]

As part of a community-based package of maternal-neonatal health care, community health workers (CHWs) were trained to conduct household surveillance and to identify and refer sick newborns according to a clinical algorithm. Assessments of newborns by CHWs at home were linked to hospital-based assessments by physicians, and factors impacting referral, referral compliance and outcome were evaluated. [from author]

This article evaluates a pilot project to examine the feasibility of an innovative three-tiered network of community-based providers for delivery of maternal health interventions in the complex emergency setting of eastern Burma. [adapted from author]

The objective of this study was to assess the use determinants of skilled attendants at delivery in Mtwara rural district. The information obtained will help the district health management team to develop interventions to improve use of delivery care services and ultimately achieve the millennium goal to reduce the high rates of maternal mortality. [from author]

This document analalyzes the effectiveness of performance incentive schemes in developing countries that comprise maternal health components, including family planning. [adapted from author]

This document highlights four community-based health delivery strategies that have demonstrated improvements in child health in high-mortality, low-resource settings and supports the growing recognition that community programs that reach beyond the walls of health care facilities and involve community members as partners have a great potential for further reducing child mortality at low cost. [adapated from author]

This learning resource package contains the trainer manual with all the material to design and hold a traning course for community health workers on postpartum family planing methods and counselling skills. It also has a participant manual for use during the training.

This background paper for “The State of the World’s Midwifery 2011” provides detailed information on the midwife cadre in Bangladesh, its role in the health system, training and the state of the field.

​This interactive map highlights the disproportionate distribution of child mortality throughout the world. It allows users to explore the map to see a real life situation in each country to see some of the difficult decisions health workers have to make in its “5 impossible decisions” feature. [adapted from publisher]

This profile summarises the available information on the cadres working at community level in Timor-Leste: their diversity, distribution, supervisory structures, education and training, as well as the policy and regulations that govern their practice. [from summary]

This paper uses ethnographic methods to document health workers’ antenatal care practices with reference to the national Focused Antenatal Care guidelines and identifies factors influencing health workers’ performance. Potential implications for improving antenatal care provision in Tanzania are discussed. [from abstract]

This profile summarises the available information on the cadres working at community level in Cambodia; their diversity, distribution, supervisory structures, education and training, as well as the policy and regulations that govern their practice. [from summary]

A study from rural Tanzania shows that health workers usually don’t do the investigations that are required to identify some of the deadly illnesses that could be diagnosed and treat. [adapted from author]

This presentation covers: global trends for maternal and childe survival; determinants of MDGs; current knowledge on what works and the role of human resources for health; and the role of innovations in scaling up. [adapted from author]

This guide is intended for health-care workers, program managers and policy-makers who are responsible for the quality of maternal health care within a health-care facility or of the entire health system. It presents a standard approach for monitoring the implementation of critical interventions in maternal health care and proposes a systematic process for assessing the quality of care. In its entirety, the included methods and related processes constitute the WHO maternal near-miss approach. [from introduction]

This article evaluates an intensive three-month course developed to train non-physician clinicians for remote health centres to address the unmet need for emergency obstetrical care in rural areas.

This paper presents data on the views of midwives from one maternity unit in England following the introduction of an organisation wide quality improvement initiative to improve in-patient postnatal care and processes to transfer women home. As quality improvement initiatives are highly influenced by the context into which they are introduced and by the processes of implementation, our findings may support others to address how clinician engagement could be enhanced. [adapted from author]

This report uses a human rights framework to examine accountability for maternal health care. It sets out several specific steps that South African and Eastern Cape governments should take to better integrate accountability into maternal health care programs and ensure their implementation through the health system. [from author]

This brief outlines a project whose objective was to have health and family planning field workers from the government and from nongovernmental organizations distribute misoprostol tablets to pregnant women in Tangail District in central Bangladesh, to assess the approach’s effectiveness, and to gather lessons learned and provide recommendations for national scale-up. [adapted from author]

Traditional birth attendants have been a subject of discussion in the provision of maternal and newborn health care, especially in developing countries where there is a lack of infrastructure and trained health personnel. The objective of this study was to assess the role of trained traditional birth attendants in maternal and newborn health care in Afar Regional State. [from abstract]

This profile summarises the available information on the cadres working
at community level in Bangladesh; their diversity, distribution, supervisory structures, education and training, as well as the policy and regulations that govern their practice. [from summary]

This strategy document introduces the issue of female genital mutilation (FGM) as it relates to health workers, the scale of the problem in the medical field, challenges to be addressed concerning medicalization of FGM, and strategies to accelerate progress from health care providers and national authorities. [adapted from author]

The explicit need to focus on quality of care underpins the aim of this study to evaluate the safety culture and teamwork climate in the public maternity units of the 5 regional hospitals in Cyprus as measured by a validated safety attitudes tool. [from abstract]

The overall objective of this study was to evaluate if a facilitation intervention on the community level, with a problem-solving approach involving local representatives if the healthcare system and the community, results in improvements of neonatal health and survival. [adapted from abstract]

This profile summarises the available information on the cadres working at community level in the Philippines; their diversity, distribution, supervisory structures, education and training, as well as the policy and regulations that govern their practice. [from summary]

This profile summarises the available information on the cadres working at community level in Vanuatu: their diversity, distribution, supervisory structures, education and training, as well as the policy and regulations that govern their practice.

This profile summarises the available information on the cadres working at community level in Indonesia; their diversity, distribution, supervisory structures, education and training, as well as the policy and regulations that govern their practice. [from summary]

This report examines the current and future availability of skilled health workers for safe delivery services and the factors influencing their retention in government health facilities, particularly in rural areas of Nepal. [from author]

This study was designed to test the hypothesis that two training programs for midwives in Zambia would reduce incrementally 7-day neonatal mortality rates for low-risk institutional deliveries. [adapted from abstract]

A task analysis survey of health workers in Liberia was conducted to determine how often recently graduated health workers perform tasks from the basic package of health services, and whether training was received for these tasks either in school or on the job. This paper focuses on nurse and midwife cadres and describe the: implementation of the study in Liberia; key findings and analysis of select clinical tasks; and recommendations for improving and integrating educational programs. [adapted from abstract]