Experience from Bangladesh: implementing emergency obstetric care as part of the reproductive health agenda

This paper describes the activities of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of the Government of Bangladesh and UNFPA to introduce emergency obstetric care (EmOC) services into the reproductive health care agenda. Working through the existing system of Maternal and Child Welfare Centers (MCWC), the quality and availability of comprehensive Reproductive Health and Emergency Obstetric Care services was improved. Investments in training, infrastructure, management information systems, quality assurance mechanisms and linkages between health care facilities in Bangladesh, have produced positive results in terms of increased utilization of these services. The Ministry of Health first implemented services in one division of the country and later scaled up to include all of the MCWCs nationally. While there are still obstacles to preventing obstetric deaths in Bangladesh, this experience shows that improvements in the quality and expansion of the range of services in existing health systems is an important step toward increasing the use of reproductive health care services by the women who need them most.