Barriers and facilitators to facility-based delivery in rural Zambia: a qualitative study of women's perceptions after implementation of an improved maternity waiting homes intervention.

Objectives: Women in sub-Saharan Africa face well-documented barriers to facility-based deliveries. An improved maternity waiting homes (MWH) model was implemented in rural Zambia to bring pregnant women closer to facilities for delivery. We qualitatively assessed whether MWHs changed perceived barriers to facility delivery among remote-living women.

If we build it, will they come? Results of a quasi-experimental study assessing the impact of maternity waiting homes on facility-based childbirth and maternity care in Zambia.

Introduction: Maternity waiting homes (MWHs) aim to increase access to maternity and emergency obstetric care by allowing women to stay near a health centre before delivery. An improved MWH model was developed with community input and included infrastructure, policies and linkages to health centres. We hypothesised this MWH model would increase health facility delivery among remote-living women in Zambia.

Home Birth in Rural Zambia: The Role of Intimate Partner Violence and Autonomous Decision-Making.

Introduction: Skilled care is indicated as a measure to prevent the deaths of pregnant women across sub-Saharan Africa. Despite this, many women continue to give birth at home. There has been little attention as to how the experience of intimate partner violence (IPV) or autonomous decision-making about place of birth influences home births in rural Zambia.

Financial Preparedness for Birth Among Rural Zambian Women: Do Antenatal Care Contacts Make a Difference?

Introduction: Financial constraints are one of the biggest barriers for women of low-income countries to receive necessary reproductive health services. Educating women about the importance of saving money has been incorporated as a component of antenatal care (ANC) contacts, but little is known whether ANC contacts influence women's saving.

Methods: A secondary analysis was conducted on data from a cross-sectional household survey study of 1109 women who recently gave birth in two rural districts of Zambia.

Maternity waiting homes as part of a comprehensive approach to maternal and newborn care: a cross-sectional survey.

Background: Increased encounters with the healthcare system at multiple levels have the potential to improve maternal and newborn outcomes. The literature is replete with evidence on the impact of antenatal care and postnatal care to improve outcomes. Additionally, maternity waiting homes (MWHs) have been identified as a critical link in the continuum of care for maternal and newborn health yet there is scant data on the associations among MWH use and antenatal/postnatal attendance, family planning and immunization rates of newborns.

Maternity waiting homes as an intervention to increase facility delivery in rural Zambia.

This study indicates a higher rate of facility delivery at clinics with a maternity waiting home in rural Zambia.

Addressing the Second Delay in Saving Mothers, Giving Life Districts in Uganda and Zambia: Reaching Appropriate Maternal Care in a Timely Manner.

Background: Between June 2011 and December 2016, the Saving Mothers, Giving Life (SMGL) initiative in Uganda and Zambia implemented a comprehensive approach targeting the persistent barriers that impact a woman's decision to seek care (first delay), ability to reach care (second delay), and ability to receive adequate care (third delay). This article addresses how SMGL partners implemented strategies specifically targeting the second delay, including decreasing the distance to facilities capable of managing emergency obstetric and newborn complications, ensuring sufficient numbers of skilled birth attendants, and addressing transportation challenges.

Methods: Both quantitative and qualitative data collected by SMGL implementing partners for the purpose of monitoring and evaluation were used to document the intervention strategies and to describe the change in outputs and outcomes related to the second delay.

Postpartum physical intimate partner violence among women in rural Zambia.

Objective: To examine the demographic characteristics and mental health of women in rural Zambia who experienced physical intimate partner violence (IPV) postpartum.

Methods: The present secondary analysis was conducted using baseline data from an impact evaluation of a maternity waiting home intervention in rural Zambia. A quantitative household survey was conducted over 6 weeks, from mid-April to late May, 2016, at 40 rural health facility catchment areas among 2381 postpartum women (13 months after delivery; age ≥15 years).