Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on maternal and perinatal health service utilisation and outcomes in Mozambique: an interrupted time series analysis.

Objectives: To measure the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on maternal and perinatal health services and outcomes in Mozambique.

Design: This is an observational study analysing routine service delivery data using interrupted time series analysis. We used 43 months of district-level panel data with April 2020 as the point of interruption, adjusting for seasonality and population growth to analyse service utilisation outcomes.

Making Removals Part of Informed Choice: A Mixed-Method Study of Client Experiences With Removal of Long-Acting Reversible Contraceptives in Senegal.

Background: Ensuring access to removal services for implants and intrauterine devices (IUDs) is essential to realize informed choice and voluntary family planning. We document removal desires and experiences among women who received an implant or IUD from the public sector in 3 districts of Senegal.

Methods: We conducted a phone survey of 1,868 implant and IUD users, 598 follow-up surveys with those who had ever asked a provider for a removal, and 24 in-depth interviews (IDIs) with women who had ever wanted an implant removal.

Re-envisioning Kangaroo Mother Care Implementation Through a Socioecological Model: Lessons From Malawi.

Introduction: Kangaroo mother care (KMC) is a critical strategy to care for preterm and low birth weight infants in resource-limited settings. Despite evidence of its effectiveness and low cost, coverage has remained low, largely due to sociocultural barriers. We aimed to better understand social norms and community perceptions of preterm infants and KMC (facility-initiated and community-continued) in Malawi, a country with a high preterm birth rate, to inform a pilot social and behavior change program.

Ensuring sufficient service capacity for removals of long-acting reversible contraceptives: a mixed-method study of provider experiences in Senegal.

As the number of implants and intrauterine devices (IUD) used in sub-Saharan Africa continues to grow, ensuring sufficient service capacity for removals is critical. This study describes public sector providers' experiences with implant and IUD removals in two districts of Senegal. We conducted a cross-sectional study with providers trained to insert implants and IUDs from all public facilities offering long-acting reversible contraceptives.

Facility-level determinants of quality routine intrapartum care in Afghanistan.

Background: Although there have been notable improvements in availability and utilization of maternal health care in Afghanistan over the last few decades, risk of maternal mortality remains very high. Previous studies have highlighted gaps in quality of emergency obstetric and newborn care practices, however, little is known about the quality of routine intrapartum care at health facilities in Afghanistan.

Methods: We analyzed a subset of data from the 2016 Afghanistan Maternal and Newborn Health Quality of Care Assessment that comprised of observations of labor, delivery and immediate post-partum care, as well as health facility assessments and provider interviews across all accessible public health facilities with an average of five or more births per day in the preceding year (N = 77).