Delivering Safer Motherhood - Factsheets, Policy Briefs & other Grey Literature
Every year an estimated half million women die in childbirth, mainly from hemorrhage, infection, and complications of abortion. We know how to prevent these deaths, yet they still tend to occur in developing countries plagued by weak health systems and substandard quality of care, among many other deficits. Thus, despite increasing global awareness to safe motherhood, the number of women who die in childbirth has changed little over the past 20 years. To help inform safer motherhood strategies, Immpact, a global research initiative that aims to improve maternal health and survival in developing countries, has worked to develop new ways to generate evidence, strengthen the evidence-base by making program evaluations more robust, and increase in-country capacity to use these methods and act on the evidence.
As part of the knowledge mobilization process, Immpact prepared, with the assistance of the Population Reference Bureau of Washington, DC (PRB), a series of Fact Sheets containing the key findings and messages. Immpact has gone on to develop other forms of grey literature as featured on various Research Communication portals (id21, R4D, etc.)
The following Grey Literature includes Fact Sheets, Policy Briefs, Articles, and Interviews which spell out in greater detail some of Immpact's key findings that will help researchers design more cost-effective safe motherhood strategies.
Immpact Fact Sheets
- **NEW** Strategies for Maternal Mortality Reduction in Senegal (PDF: 120KB)
- **NEW** Emergency Obstetric Care in Nicaragua (PDF: 91KB)
- A Comprehensive Strategy for Capacity Strengthening (PDF: 117KB)
- Economic and Financial Tools Assess Safe Motherhood Programme Costs and Benefits (PDF: 113KB)
- Evaluating Removal of Delivery Fees in Ghana (PDF: 154KB)
- Evaluating Skilled Care in Burkina Faso (PDF: (PDF: 360KB)
- Evaluating Stillbirths (PDF: 184KB)
- Globally and Locally, A Rich-Poor Gap Persists (PDF: 150KB)
- Immpact Key Findings and Policy Implications (PDF: 210KB)
- Indonesia: Resident Midwives Help Avert Maternal Deaths When Financial Barriers Are Removed (PDF: 147KB)
- Measuring and Addressing Outcomes After Pregnancy (PDF: 139KB)
- Overview of Immpact Toolkit (PDF: 87KB)
- Process Indicators Reveal Important Information About Programme Effectiveness (PDF: 149KB)
- TRACE: A New Way to Measure Quality of Maternal Health Care (PDF: 116KB)
- Measuring Maternal Mortality: Challenges, Solutions, and Next Steps (PDF: 118KB)
Policy Briefs & Briefing Notes
**NEW** Talking Points: Maternal mortality reduction in Germany, Brazil, Italy, France & Japan (PDF: 134KB)Immpact is pleased to make available in one document these five short summaries which highlight challenges and successes in achieving reductions in maternal mortality in Germany, Brazil, Italy, France and Japan. Each one discusses the key characteristics relevant to the historical decline in maternal deaths in these countries and other key aspects of reproductive health in each particular context.
**NEW** Burkina Faso Note Sommaire: Extension de l'autopsie verbale pour examiner les causes sociales et médicales de la mortalité maternelle - Oct 2008 [PDF 122kb] - FR. Cette synthèse décrit une adaptation méthodologique de la méthode d'enquête de l'autopsie verbale (AV). AV est une technique qui est utilisée pour établir les niveaux et les causes de mortalité pour les personnes qui meurent en dehors des hôpitaux et des établissements de santé. Plus de 20 pays en Afrique et en Asie utilisent l'AV pour une surveillance à grande échelle, le monitoring et la planification de la santé publique. Pendant l'AV, un entretien est mené avec la ou les principale(s) personne(s) qui prenaient soin du défunt, généralement des membres de la famille, sur les signes et les symptômes médicaux de celui-ci avant son décès. L'étude a été réalisée en novembre 2007 dans le district de Ouargaye dans le Centre-Est du Burkina Faso.
**NEW** Burkina Faso Briefing Note: Burkina Faso: Extending verbal autopsy to examine social and medical causes of maternal mortality -Oct 2008 [PDF 120kb] This briefing note was developed in collaboration with partner researchers in Burkina Faso for the purpose of providing feedback at district level health planning. It describes a methodological adaptation of the Verbal Autopsy (VA) survey method; a technique used to establish levels and causes of deaths which take place outside hospitals and health facilities. This study took place in November 2007 in the Ouargaye district in south eastern Burkina Faso. The findings suggest that the social production and political economy of health are highly influential to health outcomes.
**NEW** Ghana Briefing Note: Extending coverage of maternal health care through the National Health Insurance Authority in Ghana: Lessons from the Immpact evaluation of the free delivery care policy [PDF 265kb]. Based on lessons learned from Immpact evaluation research in Ghana - "The case for exempting pregnant women" is a briefing note Immpact Researchers developed in cooperation with the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research in Ghana for the National Consultative Meeting on Achieving MDG5 held in Accra, Ghana on 8-9 July 2008.
Extending coverage of maternal health care through the National Health Insurance Authority in Ghana: Lessons from the Immpact evaluation of the free delivery care policy - July 2008.
This briefing note [PDF:265KB] serves as findings from the Immpact evaluation translated into clear pointers on how to strengthen the shift to using the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) for coverage and for achieving a more comprehensive package of care for pregnant women in Ghana. .
Delivering Safer Motherhood: Sharing the Evidence - February 2007.
This policy brief [PDF: 130KB] presents key messages that are the result of more than four years of Immpact research in Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Indonesia. Topics discussed include barriers to skilled attendance, new tools to measure maternal deaths, and innovative ways of evaluating safe motherhood programs.
Implementation of Free Delivery Policy in Ghana -November 2005.
Midway through Immpact research in Ghana, key informtant interview revealed that the recently introduced delivery fee exemption policy was in jeopardy if further funds were not forthcoming to the health facilities involved. Immpact prepared and shared this policy brief [PDF 206KB] with key stakeholders in the Ghana Ministry of Health to raise awareness of the need for urgent funding, a framework for planning, and the need for improved communication with health professionals on resource and programmes specifics.
Articles of interest
id21 is a DFID-funded initiative to communicate development research. Immpact has contributed to a number of id21 resources & products in maternal-health and related areas:
Health Insight & Highlights: Summary of Articles
Reducing maternal mortality: is safe motherhood prioritised in Ghana? - insights health - October 2008
Financing primary health care - insights health 12 - May 2008
Removing childbirth delivery fees: the impact on health workers in Ghana - health highlights-March 2008
Midwives' attitudes to women in labour in Ghana - health highlights 23 - March 2008
Maternal health in poor countries: the broader context and a call for action - January 2007
Reducing the cost of maternal health services to the poorest households - January 2007
Understanding maternal mortality: achieving the fifth Millenium Development Goal - January 2007 Professional maternity care: scaling up provision in poor countries - February 2007
Funding crisis hits free childbirth policy in Ghana - August 2007
Reducing maternal mortality: what strategies work? - May 2007
Professional maternity care: scaling up provision in poor countries - February 2007
Interviews
Maternal mortality reserachers are going the extra mile. In interviews conducted in October 2008 with Robert Walgate of RealHealthNews, Veronique Filippi, Wendy Graham, and Sue Fairburn of Immpact speak of the work of Immpact in Burkina Faso where researchers and policy-makers are working to achieve evidence-informed policy — and action — for the poorest.
Delivering Safer Motherhood. In an interview conducted in February 2007 with the Population Reference Bureau (PRB), Wendy Graham, principal investigator at Immpact and professor of obstetric epidemiology at the University of Aberdeen, describes innovative approaches Immpact is taking to improve maternal health and survival in developing countries.
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