Assessing the Continuum of Care Pathway for Maternal Health in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa
- PDF / 483,831 Bytes
- 9 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 54 Downloads / 212 Views
Assessing the Continuum of Care Pathway for Maternal Health in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa Kavita Singh1,2 • William T. Story1 • Allisyn C. Moran3
Published online: 28 October 2015 Ó Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015
Abstract Objective We assess how countries in regions of the world where maternal mortality is highest—South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa—are performing with regards to providing women with vital elements of the continuum of care. Methods Using recent Demographic and Health Survey data from nine countries including 18,036 women, descriptive and multilevel regression analyses were conducted on four key elements of the continuum of care—at least one antenatal care visit, four or more antenatal care visits, delivery with a skilled birth attendant and postnatal checks for the mother within the first 24 h since birth. Family planning counseling within a year of birth was also included in the descriptive analyses. Results Results indicated that a major drop-out ([50 %) occurs early on in the continuum of care between the first antenatal care visit and four or more antenatal care visits. Few women (\5 %) who do not receive any antenatal care go on to have a skilled delivery or receive postnatal care. Women who receive some or all the elements of the continuum of care have greater autonomy and are richer and
more educated than women who receive none of the elements. Conclusion Understanding where drop-out occurs and who drops out can enable countries to better target interventions. Four or more ANC visits plays a pivotal role within the continuum of care and warrants more programmatic attention. Strategies to ensure that vital services are available to all women are essential in efforts to improve maternal health. Keywords Antenatal care Continuum of care Family planning Maternal health PNC Skilled delivery South Asia Sub-Saharan Africa
Significance A continuum of care approach for maternal health is being championed as a means to ensure women receive essential services during pregnancy, delivery and the postpartum period. This study, focused on countries in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, is among the first that presents the continuum of care as pathway in order to assess where drop-out is occurring and to understand the characteristics of women not receiving the vital services they need.
& Kavita Singh [email protected] 1
MEASURE Evaluation/Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, CB# 7445, Chapel Hill, NC 27516, USA
2
Department of Maternal and Child Health, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
3
Global Health Fellows Program II, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Washington, DC, USA
Introduction The continuum of care for maternal, newborn and child health, as defined by Kerber et al. [1] indicates that individuals should have access to key services throughout the life cycle including adolescence, pregnancy, childbirth, the postnatal per
Data Loading...
