Latest Articles
- Integrating family planning into postpartum care through modern quality improvement: experience from Afghanistan
Modern quality improvement approaches enabled hospital staff to analyze barriers and identify solutions for “how” to integrate family planning into postpartum care. Private spaces for postpartum family planning (PPFP) counseling, along with involving husbands and mothers-in-law in counseling, substantially increased the percentage of women receiving PPFP counseling and their preferred method before discharge. Self-reported pregnancy was also significantly lower up to 18 months post-discharge compared with women receiving routine services.
- Systems approach to monitoring and evaluation guides scale up of the Standard Days Method of family planning in Rwanda
Scaling-up lessons included: (1) simplifying provider training and client materials; (2) ensuring core aspects of the intervention, for example, that the CycleBeads client tool was integrated into the supply chain system; (3) addressing provider-generated medical barriers; and (4) managing threats from changing political and policy environments. A focus on systems, the use of multiple M&E data sources, maintaining fidelity of the innovation, and ongoing environmental scans facilitated scale-up success.
- Evaluation of community-based interventions to improve TB case detection in a rural district of Tanzania
Enlisting traditional healers and pharmacists to improve TB detection contributed 38% to 70% of new smear-positive case notifications per quarter in a rural district of Tanzania.
- Rising cesarean deliveries among apparently low-risk mothers at university teaching hospitals in Jordan: analysis of population survey data, 2002–2012
Cesarean deliveries nationally in Jordan have increased to 30%, including substantial increases among births that are likely low risk for cesarean delivery for the most part. This level is double the threshold that WHO considers reasonable.
- Are pregnant women prioritized for bed nets? An assessment using survey data from 10 African countries
Women of reproductive age are generally more likely to sleep under an insecticide-treated net (ITN) than other household members. Universal coverage increases ITN use by all family members, including pregnant women. However, BCC efforts are needed to achieve desired levels of bed net use, which is especially important for pregnant women.
- The quality–coverage gap in antenatal care: toward better measurement of effective coverage
The proportion of pregnant women receiving 4 or more antenatal care (ANC) visits has no necessary relationship with the actual content of those visits. We propose a simple alternative to measure program performance that aggregates key services that are common across countries and measured in Demographic and Health Surveys, such as blood pressure measurement, tetanus toxoid vaccination, first ANC visit before 4 months gestation, urine testing, counseling about pregnancy danger signs, and iron–folate supplementation.
- Getting family planning and population back on track
After a generation of partial neglect, renewed attention is being paid to population and voluntary family planning. Realistic access to family planning is a prerequisite for women's autonomy. For the individual, family, society, and our fragile planet, family planning has great power.
- Medical barriers to emergency contraception: a cross-sectional survey of doctors in North India
Emergency contraceptive pills (ECPs) are extremely safe and do not interfere with implantation. Yet many surveyed physicians in India did not know that there are no contraindications to using ECPs, and many had negative attitudes about ECP users. Most were against having ECPs available over-the-counter and wanted to impose age restrictions. Efforts are needed to address such misconceptions that might lead to limiting ECP availability.
- Informed push distribution of contraceptives in Senegal reduces stockouts and improves quality of family planning services
Dedicated logisticians restocked contraceptives monthly at facilities to maintain defined minimum stock levels, freeing up clinic staff. High stockout rates were virtually eliminated. Also, quality and timely data on contraceptives distributed allowed for better program management.
- Urban health: it's time to get moving!
The global health community should mainstream urban health and implement urban health programs to address the triple health burden of communicable diseases, noncommunicable diseases, and injuries in low- and middle-income countries.