Marge Koblinsky, Zoë Matthews, Julia Hussein, Dileep Mavalankar et al.
Because most women prefer professionally provided maternity care when they have access to it, and since the needed clinical interventions are well known, we discuss in their paper what is needed to move forward from apparent global stagnation in provision and use of maternal health care where matern...
JG Silverman, Jhumka Gupta, Michele R. Decker, Nitin Kapur et al.
OBJECTIVE: To estimate (1) lifetime prevalence of physical and sexual victimisation from husbands among a national sample of Bangladeshi women, (2) associations of unwanted pregnancy and experiences of husband violence, and (3) associations of miscarriage, induced abortion, and fetal death/stillbirt...
HL McLachlan, DA Forster, MA Davey, Thomas J. Farrell et al.
OBJECTIVE: To determine whether primary midwife care (caseload midwifery) decreases the caesarean section rate compared with standard maternity care. DESIGN: Randomised controlled trial. SETTING: Tertiary-care women's hospital in Melbourne, Australia. POPULATION: A total of 2314 low-risk pregnant wo...
Marjorie A. Koblinsky, Oona M. R. Campbell, J. Heichelheim
The various means of delivering essential obstetric services are described for settings in which the maternal mortality ratio is relatively low. This review yields four basic models of care, which are best described by organizational characteristics relating to where women give birth and who perform...
Bidhan Krishna Sarker, Musfikur Rahman, Tawhidur Rahman, Jahangir Hossain et al.
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Although Bangladesh has made significant progress in reducing maternal and child mortality in the last decade, childbirth assisted by skilled attendants has not increased as much as expected. An objective of the Bangladesh National Strategy for Maternal Health 2014-2024 is...
Kishwar Azad, Sarah Barnett, B Banerjee, Sanjit Kumer Shaha et al.
Background Two recent trials have shown that women's groups can reduce neonatal mortality in poor communities. We assessed the effectiveness of a scaled-up development programme with women's groups to address maternal and neonatal care in three rural districts of Bangladesh. Methods 18 clusters (wit...
Lawrence Leeman, Rebecca G. Rogers
In Brief Pregnancy and childbirth bring many changes to the health and well-being of new mothers. Postpartum sexual health is a common concern that is often not discussed during prenatal or postpartum care and has received little attention from either clinicians or researchers. In this article, we r...
Melissa Neuman, Glyn Alcock, Kishwar Azad, Abdul Kuddus et al.
OBJECTIVES: To describe the prevalence and determinants of births by caesarean section in private and public health facilities in underserved communities in South Asia. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: 81 community-based geographical clusters in four locations in Bangladesh, India and Nepal (...
Steven L. Clark
Amniotic fluid embolism remains one of the most devastating conditions in obstetric practice with an incidence of approximately 1 in 40,000 deliveries and a reported mortality rate ranging from 20% to 60%. The pathophysiology appears to involve an abnormal maternal response to fetal tissue exposure ...
Tahmina Begum, Aminur Rahman, Herfina Nababan, Dewan Md Emdadul Hoque et al.
BACKGROUND AND METHODS: Caesarean section (C-section) is a major obstetric intervention for saving lives of women and their newborns from pregnancy and childbirth related complications. Un-necessary C-sections may have adverse impact upon maternal and neonatal outcomes. In Bangladesh there is paucit...
Ghada E. Saad, Jocelyn DeJong, Nancy Terreri, María Clara Restrepo–Méndez et al.
BACKGROUND: Antenatal care (ANC) is critical for improving maternal and newborn health. WHO recommends that pregnant women complete at least four ANC visits. Countdown and other global monitoring efforts track the proportions of women who receive one or more visits by a skilled provider (ANC1+) and ...
Jane Henderson, Haiyan Gao, Maggie Redshaw
BACKGROUND: According to the Office for National Statistics, approximately a quarter of women giving birth in England and Wales are from minority ethnic groups. Previous work has indicated that these women have poorer pregnancy outcomes than White women and poorer experience of maternity care, somet...
William T. Story, Sarah Burgard, Jody R. Lori, Fahmida Taleb et al.
BACKGROUND: A primary cause of high maternal mortality in Bangladesh is lack of access to professional delivery care. Examining the role of the family, particularly the husband, during pregnancy and childbirth is important to understanding women's access to and utilization of professional maternal h...
Elizabeth Goodburn, Rukhsana Gazi, Mushtaque Chowdhury
Most maternal deaths occur in the puerperium and most maternal morbidities probably also arise at that time. Maternal morbidities occur much more frequently than maternal deaths, but very little is known about their magnitude or causes. This study uses focus-group discussions to explore the experien...
Jesmin Pervin, Allisyn C. Moran, Monjur Rahman, Abdur Razzaque et al.
BACKGROUND: Antenatal Care (ANC) during pregnancy can play an important role in the uptake of evidence-based services vital to the health of women and their infants. Studies report positive effects of ANC on use of facility-based delivery and perinatal mortality. However, most existing studies are l...