Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health
- Effects of a Peer-Led Intervention on HIV Care Continuum Outcomes Among Contacts of Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults Living With HIV in Zimbabwe
An intervention focused on children, adolescents, and young adults living with HIV using a cadre of dedicated peers—community adolescent treatment supporters—led to improvements along the HIV care cascade among their household contacts and sexual partners.
- Healthy Timing and Spacing of Pregnancy: Reducing Mortality Among Women and Their Children
Accessible, affordable, and high-quality postabortion care (PAC) can prevent maternal death and disability and provides an important opportunity to prevent future unintended pregnancies. This supplement offers learnings on PAC provision from the community of partners around the world, including service delivery and community engagement models, approaches to support facility-based providers, best practices in pre- and post-procedure counseling, and approaches to institutionalize PAC in public- and private-sector health systems.
- Cell Phone Counseling Improves Retention of Mothers With HIV Infection in Care and Infant HIV Testing in Kisumu, Kenya: A Randomized Controlled Study
Tailored, one-on-one counseling delivered via cell phone was very effective in retaining mothers with HIV in care and in promoting infant HIV testing and antenatal and postnatal care attendance. The highest risk of loss to follow-up among women with HIV accessing PMTCT services was prior to delivery and then after infant HIV testing at 6 weeks. Challenges include continued limited access to cell phones, difficulty with reaching participants on the phone, and poor adherence to antiretroviral therapy for a substantial percentage of the population.
- Alternative Ready-To-Use Therapeutic Food Yields Less Recovery Than the Standard for Treating Acute Malnutrition in Children From Ghana
In Ghana, an alternative ready-to-use food (RUTF) formulation that met all specifications was not as good as standard RUTF in affecting recovery from acute malnutrition among children aged 6 to 59 months.
- Saving Mothers, Giving Life: It Takes a System to Save a Mother (Republication)
A multi-partner effort in Uganda and Zambia employed a districtwide health systems strengthening approach, with supply- and demand-side interventions, to address timely use of appropriate, quality maternity care. Between 2012 and 2016, maternal mortality declined by approximately 40% in both partnership-supported facilities and districts in each country. This experience has useful lessons for other low-resource settings.
- Saving Mothers, Giving Life: A Systems Approach to Reducing Maternal and Perinatal Deaths in Uganda and Zambia
The 5-year public-private partnership boldly addressed maternal mortality in Uganda and Zambia using a systems approach at the district level to avoid delays in women seeking, reaching, and receiving timely, quality services. This supplement provides details on the Saving Mothers, Giving Life partnership and approach, including the model, impact, costs, and sustainability.
- The Costs and Cost-Effectiveness of a District-Strengthening Strategy to Mitigate the 3 Delays to Quality Maternal Health Care: Results From Uganda and Zambia
A comprehensive district-strengthening approach to address maternal and newborn health was estimated to cost US$177 per life-year gained in Uganda and $206 per life-year gained in Zambia. The approach represents a very cost-effective health investment compared to GDP per capita.
- Saving Lives Together: A Qualitative Evaluation of the Saving Mothers, Giving Life Public-Private Partnership
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.