The history of measuring maternal mortality reflects eflects the evolution of two broader strategic priorities: maternal health (safe motherhood) and health information systems. Three main periods can be distinguished: mid-1980s to 2000, 2000-2010, and 2010 to the present day, which broadly...

Three different definitions of maternal death should be distinguished: maternal deaths, pregnancy-related deaths and late maternal deaths. Four indicators are used to describe different aspects of the level of maternal mortality: maternal mortality ratio, maternal mortality rate, maternal...

Six million babies die each year either as late fetal deaths in the last trimester or the first month of life (neonatal deaths); 98% occur in developing countries and 75% in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, which is also where 87% of global maternal deaths occur. Between 1995 and 2008,...

A functioning health system is crucial ucial for maternal health programmes to achieve their goals of improving maternal and perinatal health. The six essential building blocks of a health system are service delivery, health workforce, information, equipment and supplies, financing and leadership...

The cost of accessing maternity care in low and middle income countries falls heavily on users, contributing to the low uptake of key services such as deliveries in health facilities and limited access to emergency obstetric care. This is a particular challenge for poor households. Different...

To ensure adequate coverage of care for maternal and perinatal health goals, maternity services (of good quality) must be made available. The availability of maternity services is dependent upon the health system and cannot be planned in isolation. Clear policies which draw upon principles of the...

Demand side interventions are necessary to increase use of maternity services. Factors that affect demand include knowledge of danger signs in pregnancy and childbirth; financial, geographical and social access to health care; quality of care and the gendered norms and values around maternal...

BRAC is an international development organization based in Bangladesh that is dedicated to alleviating poverty by empowering the poor. Empowerment can be viewed as a process of transformational change. Community participation is an empowering tool through which local communities can take action to...

Definitions of quality of care vary, but all recognize the multidimensional nature of quality. Choosing a suitable quality of care framework should be driven by the purpose of assessing quality of care, the setting in which quality improvements are planned, the nature of the interventions and the...

Monitoring and evaluation are essential components of all programmes to improve maternal and perinatal health and to ensure that programme effects and value can be documented. A plan for monitoring and evaluation should be done when programmes are being designed and at the start of implementation,...