Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health
- Revisiting the Facility-Based Delivery Rate Formula in the Philippines for Better Local Health Governance and Services
When calculating local facility-based delivery rates, the standard measure based on place of birth excludes residents' facility births outside the municipality. In contrast, counting the facility births of all residents—regardless of whether they take place within or outside their home municipality—provides a more accurate population- or residence-based measure of use of services for that catchment area. This residence-based measure offers local governments a better understanding of coverage gaps by taking into account place of residence rather than place of birth.
- Helping Babies Breathe—Beyond Training
The revised Helping Babies Breathe training package now emphasizes the need for regular practice and quality improvement—an important improvement since more is needed than one-off training to have substantial impact on asphyxia-related newborn mortality.
- New Evidence on Carbetocin: Another Arrow in Our Quiver
Carbetocin is more heat stable than oxytocin with at least equivalent efficacy for preventing postpartum hemorrhage. It will certainly be helpful if the supplier can make it available in low-income country settings at a price comparable to oxytocin. But even so, programs will still need oxytocin and other uterotonic medications.
- Beyond the Safe Motherhood Initiative: Accelerated Action Urgently Needed to End Preventable Maternal Mortality
Many countries will need to double, or more than double, their current annual rate of reduction of maternal mortality to ensure sufficient progress toward national targets and the global Sustainable Development Goals. Dedication to the principles and actions of quality, equity, dignity, social justice, and human rights are key.
- Quality and Cost Interventions During the Extended Perinatal Period to Increase Family Planning Use in Kinshasa, DRC: Results From an Initial Study
The combined intervention of free contraceptives plus a set of quality inputs for family planning during the extended perinatal period, including provision of long-acting methods immediately postpartum, had the strongest effect on use of modern contraceptives, especially long-acting methods.
- Helping Postpartum Women in Mali Achieve Their Fertility Intentions: Perspectives From Introduction of the Dedicated Postpartum IUD Inserter
In this pilot introduction setting, trained providers reported higher acceptance and preference for the dedicated inserter compared with the conventional postpartum insertion with forceps, suggesting potential for the dedicated inserter to expand access to postpartum IUDs.
- Helping Babies Breathe, Second Edition: A Model for Strengthening Educational Programs to Increase Global Newborn Survival
The revised neonatal resuscitation curriculum updates not only the science of resuscitation but also the educational and implementation approaches needed to further enhance neonatal survival, including promoting ongoing practice to retain skills and linkages with quality improvement initiatives.
- Childbirth and Early Newborn Care Practices in 4 Provinces in China: A Comparison With WHO Recommendations
In the 10 hospitals studied, we found that hospital policies, protocols, and interventions only partially align with WHO early newborn care recommendations, and that many hospitals still use outdated and non-medically sound practices.
- High-Risk Advanced Maternal Age and High Parity Pregnancy: Tackling a Neglected Need Through Formative Research and Action
Harmful social norms and lack of knowledge contribute to risky pregnancies in older and high-parity women in low- and middle-income countries. A social and behavior change communication resource combining technical guidance with tangible client and provider materials was designed to address and prevent such pregnancies in Niger and Togo.
- Eliminating Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV by 2030: 5 Strategies to Ensure Continued Progress
To keep up momentum in preventing mother-to-child transmission we propose: (1) advocating for greater political and financial commitment; (2) targeting high-risk populations such as adolescent girls and young women; (3) implementing novel service delivery models such as community treatment groups; (4) performing regular viral load monitoring during pregnancy and postpartum to ensure suppression before delivery and during breastfeeding; and (5) harnessing technology in monitoring and evaluation and HIV diagnostics.