Evaluation of a community-based intervention package to improve knowledge of obstetric danger signs, birth preparedness, and institutional delivery care utilization in Arba Minch Zuria District, Ethiopia: a cluster-randomized trial.

Introduction: Maternal healthcare utilization, particularly the institutional delivery, is disproportionately low in rural Ethiopia. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of an integrated package of community-based interventions on the improved knowledge of obstetric danger signs, birth preparedness, and institutional delivery services utilization in rural areas of Gamo zone, southern Ethiopia.

Methods: We conducted cluster-randomized controlled trial (NCT05385380) from 2019 to 2021 at the Arba Minch Health and Demographic Surveillance System site.

Determinants of maternal healthcare utilisation among pregnant women in Southern Ethiopia: a multi-level analysis.

Background: Despite efforts to make maternal health care services available in rural Ethiopia, utilisation status remains low. Therefore, this study aimed to assess maternal health care services' status and determinants in rural Ethiopia.

Methods: The study used quasi-experimental pre- and post-comparison baseline data.

Benefits, barriers and enablers of maternity waiting homes utilization in Ethiopia: an integrative review of national implementation experience to date.

Background: Though Ethiopia has expanded Maternity Waiting Homes (MWHs) to reduce maternal and perinatal mortality, the utilization rate is low. To maximize the use of MWH, policymakers must be aware of the barriers and benefits of using MWH. This review aimed to describe the evidence on the barriers and benefits to access and use of MWHs in Ethiopia.

"I Could Not Manage This Long-Term, Absolutely Not." Aging in Place, Informal Care, COVID-19, and the Neighborhood in Flanders (Belgium).

Public health and care policies across OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries increasingly encourage aging in place, enabled by both formal care networks, and informal (family) care and social solidarity in the neighborhood. However, little is known about how a person's neighborhood might affect their aging in place. The COVID-19 crisis unintendedly offered a good opportunity to observe the neighborhood's role in the provision of care.

Maternity waiting homes as component of birth preparedness and complication readiness for rural women in hard-to-reach areas in Ethiopia.

Background: In rural areas of Ethiopia, 57% of births occur at home without the assistance of skilled birth attendants, geographical inaccessibility being one of the main factors that hinder skilled birth attendance. Establishment of maternity waiting homes (MWH) is part of a strategy to improve access to skilled care by bringing pregnant women physically close to health facilities. This study assessed barriers to MWHs in Arba Minch Zuria District, Southern Ethiopia.

Traditional birth attendants' roles and homebirth choices in Ethiopia: A qualitative study.

Background: In Ethiopia, it is encouraged that labour and delivery care are performed under the observation of skilled/trained midwifery or medical professionals. However, 70% of all births occur outside the healthcare system under the care of unskilled birth attendants, family members, or without any assistance at all.

Objective: This study aimed to assess the reasons for choosing homebirth and the role of traditional birth attendants in Arba Minch Health and Demographic Surveillance Site.

How secular is Europe?

A large body of literature has developed, yielding evidence that religion in general and Churches and Church leaders in particular have lost their once dominant position in contemporary Europe. Evidence is often cited in declining levels of church attendance. Whether Europe should also be qualified as secularized in terms of religious beliefs remains unclear.