Publications by authors named "Mwakatundu N"
Article Synopsis
- The Program to Reduce Maternal Deaths in Tanzania (2006-2019) aimed to enhance maternal and reproductive healthcare in the Kigoma region through a phased approach, focusing on accessibility, quality, and community demand.
- The initiative notably decreased maternal and perinatal mortality rates, increased modern contraceptive use, and reduced the unmet need for contraception, ultimately transitioning to Tanzanian government oversight by 2019.
- Key lessons from the Program highlight the importance of partnerships, quality clinical services, timely data responsiveness, and sustainability planning to successfully reduce maternal mortality in similar low-resource settings.
Introduction: To address high levels of maternal mortality in Kigoma, Tanzania, stakeholders increased women's access to high-quality comprehensive emergency obstetric and newborn care (EmONC) by decentralizing services from hospitals to health centers where EmONC was delivered mostly by associate clinicians and nurses. To ensure that women used services, implementers worked to continuously improve and sustain quality of care while creating demand.
Methods: Program evaluation included periodic health facility assessments, pregnancy outcome monitoring, and enhanced maternal mortality detection region-wide in program- and nonprogram-supported health facilities.
Birth companionship in a government health system: a pilot study in Kigoma, Tanzania.
BMC Pregnancy Childbirth
April 2021
Background: Having a companion of choice throughout childbirth is an important component of good quality and respectful maternity care for women and has become standard in many countries. However, there are only a few examples of birth companionship being implemented in government health systems in low-income countries. To learn if birth companionship was feasible, acceptable and led to improved quality of care in these settings, we implemented a pilot project using 9 intervention and 6 comparison sites (all government health facilities) in a rural region of Tanzania.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- The study examines the impact of training and individual factors on the practice of vacuum-assisted birth among healthcare providers in rural Tanzania.
- Approximately 80% of providers received some form of training, but only 31% practiced the procedure recently, highlighting a gap between training and application.
- Interestingly, hands-on practice during training significantly increased the likelihood of recent vacuum extraction, with providers exposed to more training modalities being much more likely to perform the procedure.
Background: Labor and birth companionship is a key aspect of respectful maternity care. Lack of companionship deters women from accessing facility-based delivery care, though formal and informal policies against companionship are common in sub-Saharan African countries.
Aim: To identify client and provider factors associated with labor and birth companionship DESIGN: Cross-sectional evaluation among delivery clients and providers in 61 health facilities in Kigoma Region, Tanzania, April-July 2016.
Background: In rural Tanzania access to emergency obstetric and newborn care is threatened by poor roads and understaffed facilities among other challenges. Districts in Kigoma, Pwani and Morogoro regions were targeted by a local non-governmental organization to assist local government to build capacity and improve access to clinical management of severe obstetric and newborn complications. The program upgraded ten primary health care centres to provide comprehensive emergency obstetric and newborn care.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroducing eHealth strategies to enhance maternal and perinatal health care in rural Tanzania.
Matern Health Neonatol Perinatol
January 2017
Background: Globally, eHealth has attracted considerable attention as a means of supporting maternal and perinatal health care. This article describes best practices, gains and challenges of implementing eHealth for maternal and perinatal health care in extremely remote and rural Tanzania.
Methods: Teleconsultation for obstetric emergency care, audio teleconferences and online eLearning systems were installed in ten upgraded rural health centres, four rural district hospitals and one regional hospital in Tanzania.
Objective: To describe the results of increasing availability and quality of caesarean deliveries and anaesthesia in rural Tanzania.
Design: Before-after intervention study design.
Settings: Rural Tanzania.
Background: In Tanzania, maternal mortality ratio (MMR), unmet need for emergency obstetric care and health inequities across the country are in a critical state, particularly in rural areas. This study was established to determine the feasibility and impact of decentralizing comprehensive emergency obstetric and neonatal care (CEmONC) services in underserved rural areas using associate clinicians.
Methods: Ten health centres (HCs) were upgraded by constructing and equipping maternity blocks, operating rooms, laboratories, staff houses and installing solar panels, standby generators and water supply systems.