Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health
- Are We Using the Right Approach to Change Newborn Care Practices in the Community? Qualitative Evidence From Ethiopia and Northern Nigeria
In Ethiopia, high community-level exposure to consistent messages and the perceptions of community health workers and relationships with them drove newborn care behavior change. In Nigeria, exposure to messages was limited, community health workers were less trusted, and behavior change was reported less frequently.
- Integrating Calcium Into Antenatal Iron-Folic Acid Supplementation in Ethiopia: Women’s Experiences, Perceptions of Acceptability, and Strategies to Support Calcium Supplement Adherence
In household trials of improved practices, rural Ethiopian women were motivated to adhere to antenatal calcium supplementation regimens, and tailored home-based strategies helped them overcome barriers such as regimen complexity, forgetfulness, side effects, and discouragement from others.
- Where Do Caregivers Take Their Sick Children for Care? An Analysis of Care Seeking and Equity in 24 USAID Priority Countries
Understanding whether and where parents take sick children for care is critical to improve child health and survival. Stakeholders should use this information to ensure that resources are programmed effectively and that sectors complement one another to increase equitable access to high quality integrated management approaches for sick child care.
- A Qualitative Comparative Analysis of the Drivers of HIV Status Knowledge in Orphans and Vulnerable Children in Mozambique
We identified combinations of modifiable factors that HIV programs supporting orphans, vulnerable children, and their families may be able to act on to increase the proportion of beneficiaries who know their HIV status.
- Beyond No Blame: Practical Challenges of Conducting Maternal and Perinatal Death Reviews in Eastern Ethiopia
Lack of a professional body to address patients’ complaints regarding quality of health care and absence of clear medicolegal guidance hamper maternal death reviews in Ethiopia.
- Breaking Specialty Silos: Improving Global Child Health Through Essential Surgical Care
Children’s health care providers and children’s surgery providers can partner to improve children’s health by developing the surgical workforce, focusing on “best buy” surgeries, integrating children’s surgery into national plans, streamlining data collection and research, and leveraging financing.
- How Should Home-Based Maternal and Child Health Records Be Implemented? A Global Framework Analysis
Our assessment of home-based record use in low- and middle-income countries indicated that the implementation process consists of 8 interdependent components involving policy makers, funders, and end users—health care workers, pregnant women, and the parents/caregivers of children. Successful implementation can result in improved maternal and child health outcomes and more efficient use of government and donor investments.
- A Rapid Review of Available Evidence to Inform Indicators for Routine Monitoring and Evaluation of Respectful Maternity Care
We present a set of indicators that could be used to measure the effects of programs on RMC. Integrating these indicators into programs to improve quality of care and other health system outcomes will facilitate routine monitoring and accountability around experience of care.
- Designing and Evaluating Scalable Child Marriage Prevention Programs in Burkina Faso and Tanzania: A Quasi-Experiment and Costing Study
Minimal, low-cost approaches can be effective in delaying child marriage and increasing school attendance. Program managers should consider the cost, quality, and coverage of interventions, especially because child marriage persists in the most hard-to-reach, rural areas of many countries.