Insights into health care seeking behaviour for children in communities in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

Background: South African infant and child mortality remains high, with many deaths occurring outside the formal health services. Delayed health care seeking represents a large proportion of these deaths.

Aim: To generate knowledge about the role of, and influences on, caregivers with regard to decision-making about when and where to seek care for sick children.

Fragmentation of maternal, child and HIV services: A missed opportunity to provide comprehensive care.

Background: In South Africa, coverage of services for mothers and babies in the first year of life is suboptimal despite high immunisation coverage over the same time period. Integration of services could improve accessibility of services, uptake of interventions and retention in care.

Aim: This study describes provision of services for mothers and babies aged under 1 year.