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Saving Mothers, Giving Life used 6 strategies to address the third delay—receiving adequate health care after reaching a facility—in maternal and newborn health care. The intervention approaches can be adapted in low-resource settings to improve facility-based care and reduce maternal and perinatal mortality.

Overall, the Saving Mothers, Giving Life partnership was praised as a successful model for interagency coordination. Key strengths included diversity in partner expertise, high-quality monitoring and evaluation, strong leadership, and country ownership. Uncertainty about partner roles and responsibilities, perceived power inequities between partners, bureaucratic processes, and limited Ministry of Health representation in the governance structure were some challenges that, if addressed by similar public-private partnerships under development, may improve long-term partnership success.

The Saving Mothers, Giving Life initiative employed 2 key strategies to improve the ability of pregnant women to reach maternal care: (1) increase the number of emergency obstetric and newborn care facilities, including upgrading existing health facilities, and (2) improve accessibility to such facilities by renovating and constructing maternity waiting homes, improving communication and transportation systems, and supporting community-based savings groups. These interventions can be adapted in low-resource settings to improve access to maternity care services.

While the Saving Mothers, Giving Life's health systems strengthening approach reduced maternal mortality, respondents still reported significant barriers accessing maternal health services. More research is needed to understand the necessary intervention package to affect system-wide change.