All women should have access to high quality maternity services—but what do we know
about the health care available to and used by women? With a focus on low-income and …

Summary Background Millennium Development Goal 5 calls for a 75% reduction in the
maternal mortality ratio (MMR) between 1990 and 2015. We estimated levels and trends in …

Background Global efforts to increase births at health-care facilities might not reduce
maternal or newborn mortality if quality of care is insufficient. However, little systematic …

Background High maternal deaths in developing countries are recognised as a public health
issue. To address this concern, targets were set as part of the Millennium Development …

Background Healthcare provider training in Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care
(EmOC&NC) is a component of 65% of intervention programs aimed at reducing maternal …

Background The measurement of progress in maternal and newborn health often relies on
data provided by women in surveys on the quality of care they received. The majority of …

Background Tracking progress on maternal and newborn survival requires accurate
information on the coverage of essential interventions. Despite widespread use, most …

Background Having a health worker with midwifery skills present at delivery is one of the key
interventions to reduce maternal and newborn mortality. We sought to estimate the …

Delivering in health facility under the supervision of skilled birth attendant is an important
way of mitigating impacts of delivery complications. Empirical evidence suggests that …

Authors of the Lancet series on midwifery (Homer et al., 2014, Renfrew et al., 2014, ten
Hoope-Bender et al., 2014, Van Lerberghe et al., 2014) recently illuminated the …