Building a community-based maternity program

The MotherCare Project has as its goal the reduction of maternal and neonatal mortality and related morbidities, and the promotion of the health of women and newborns. To achieve these goals, maternal and family planning programs were strengthened in both rural and urban settings through three intervention strategies--policy reform, affecting behaviors and improving services. The fundamental premise in each project was to strengthen the weakest part of the maternity care pyramid, ensuring linkages among all levels of service--from community through to the referral hospital level. In rural Andean populations of Bolivia, knowledge of danger signs and women's response to them improved, increasing in use of prenatal and family planning services through a participatory problem-solving and community-based strategy. In West Java, Indonesia, bringing professional midwifery services and facilities closer to women together has resulted in a positive response to their use. Augmenting this intervention with a transport and intercommunication system together with improved hospital practice through perinatal mortality meetings and in-service training for doctors and midwives has reduced the maternal and perinatal mortality over a four year period. Hospital practice has improved in Uganda and in two states of Nigeria, maternal mortality and morbidity have been reduced in the training facility where seminars for physicians, training of midwives in life saving midwifery and interpersonal communication skills have taken place, and equipment and supplies have been improved. Furthermore, in rural Guatemala, implementation of norms and protocols, expert supervision and sensitization of hospital staff to the needs of the community has increased referral by traditional birth attendants (TBAs) to the hospital and reduced perinatal mortality.