Reproductive Health

This evaluation assessed the success of a pilot program that trained [Female community health volunteers] in early pregnancy detection using urine pregnancy tests (UPTs), counseling, and referral to appropriate antenatal, safe abortion, or family planning services. [from abstract]

The overview involved a synthesis and review of recent data and information from key
national representative peer reviewed articles and grey literature from the National Department of
Health and related stakeholder reports. [from abstract]

The aim of this study was to assess the effect of serving physicians and midwives on the quantity and quality of family planning services in the healthcare centers of Iran. [from abstract]

Zonal Hospital, Mandi identified that they were not identifying women with high risk conditions during their antenatal care (ANC) clinic. By re-organizing the clinic, the hospital was able to increase the proportion of pregnant women identified as being at high-risk from 1.6% to 12.3% in a matter of weeks. [from abstract]

In 2003 the Government of Ghana established a National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to improve health care access for Ghanaians and eventually replace the cash-and-carry system. This study evaluates the NHIS to determine whether it is fulfilling its purpose in the context of the Millennium Development Goals #4 and #5 which deal with the health of women and children. [from abstract]

A mapping of training resource packages for [community health workers] was undertaken with documents retrieved online and from key informants. Materials were classified by health themes and analysed using agreed parameters. Ways forward were informed by a subsequent expert consultation. [from abstract]

This research aimed to assess how policies reducing demand-side barriers to access to health care have affected service delivery with a particular focus on human resources for health using case studies in five countries (Ghana, Nepal, Sierra Leone, Zambia and Zimbabwe). In each the authors reviewed financing and HRH policies, considered the impact financing policy change had made on health service utilization rates, analysed the distribution of health staff and their actual and potential workloads, and compared remuneration terms in the public sectors. [from abstract]

This study evaluated the effect of a program that trained community health nurses and relocated them to the community to provide door-to-door services on the level of male involvement in family planning services. [adapted from author]

This article documents the intervention package and evaluation design of a study conducted in a rural district of Bangladesh to evaluate the effects of an integrated, community-based maternal and neonatal health and postpartum family planning program on contraceptive use and birth-interval lengths.

The authors evaluated the effectiveness of a training for facility-based health care providers, managers, and medical college faculty members that offered client-centered family planning services, including a module to explain the Islamic viewpoint on family planning. [adapted from abstract]

High levels of unmet need for family planning and high contraceptive discontinuation rates persist in Jordan, prompting the initiation a client-centered family planning service program with community-based activities to encourage women with unmet need to visit health centers, which was evaluated in this study. [adapted from abstract]

This study investigated the reasons for poor implementation of the legal abortion policy in Ghana using Lipsky’s theory of street-level bureaucracy to better understand how providers shape and implement policy and how provider-level barriers might be overcome. [from abstract]

This study aimed to determine whether training of providers participating in franchise clinic networks is associated with increased family planning service use among low-income urban families in Pakistan.

This study aimed to examine health care workers’ attitudes toward sexual and reproductive health services to unmarried adolescents in Ethiopia through a descriptive cross-sectional study. [adapted from abstract]

This article examines the extent, motivation, and prevalence of village level health workers’ interaction with men concerning reproductive health issues in rural central India. [from author]

The following paper is a synthesis of the findings of researchers on training transfer and efficacy of the Sexual and Reproductive Health Program in Crisis and Post-Crisis Settings in the Asia Pacific Region, which was designed to address sexual and reproductive health in all phases of the disaster cycle, with a particular focus on preparedness and coordinated response and the importance of human resources for an effective response. [adapted from abstract]

This technical brief presents findings from a study that explored if and how health workforce measures differ between eastern and western Africa, in an effort to identify factors that may have helped some countries to achieve important gains in contraceptive prevalence while other countries have not.

This interview with Shaheen Hussain of Pakistan tells the story of how she became a field-based health educator with a social franchise of private reproductive health care providers and is a testimony of how this program not only touches the lives of the women who receive the reproductive health services but also of the health educators themselves.

This toolkit contains resources to help policy makers, program managers, service providers, and other audiences improve access to and quality of community-based family planning services. [from publisher]

This paper from the International Conference on ICT for Africa reports on a mobile phone application designed to support community health workers in providing family planning counseling to their clients. [from abstract]

This study sought to assess whether sublingual misoprostol could effectively evacuate the uterus after incomplete abortion and to confirm its applicability for use by lower level clinicians. [adapted from abstract]

This study aimed to elicit the views of primary healthcare providers from Bolivia, Ecuador, and Nicaragua on how adolescent sexual and reproductive health care in their communities can be improved. [from abstract]

This study gathered information on adolescent sexual and reproductive services and educati on provision in the Solomon Islands and explored ways in which collaboration between the health, education and youth sectors could be feasibly enhanced. [from summary]

With interest in male circumcision (MC) as an HIV prevention option, this study explored the perceptions and motivations of health workers involved in sexual and reproductive health services, examining their implications for the possible future roll out of a national MC program. [adapted from abstract]

This qualitative study was conducted among frontline health workers to explore provider experiences with integration in order to ascertain their significance to the performance of integrated health facilities. [from abstract]

The objective of this study was to determine if, with appropriate training, volunteers known as community-based reproductive health agents can administer injectable contraceptives to women in a rural region of Ethiopia with the same effectiveness, safety and acceptability as health extension workers. [from author]

There is a paucity of knowledge concerning the roles of those who provide adolescent health services, care and information across the health and education sectors, how they are managed and educated, and the policies that guide their practice.

This resource contains curriculum components and tools needed to design, implement, and evaluate training. It offers essential resources for family planning and reproductive health trainers, supervisors, and program managers. The entire package is designed to support up-to-date training on family planning and reproductive health.

Focusing on the demand-side (governments and donors) of contracting out with the private sector, the primer describes the concept of contracting out, discusses its rationale and process, and summarizes three cases of contracting out programs. [from summary]

This primer aims to provide clear lessons and recommendations to help service delivery organizations
and program managers establish, implement, and strengthen contracting arrangements. The primer draws on Marie
Stopes International’s experience of delivering government-contracted services in Bangladesh, India, and South
Africa. [from summary]