Improving postpartum care for mothers and newborns in Niger and Mali: a case study of an integrated maternal and newborn improvement programme.

Abstract

Despite appropriate guidelines, healthcare services worldwide often fail to deliver high-impact evidence-based care. This case study describes a large-scale programme to improve integrated postpartum care for mothers and newborns in Niger and Mali. As a result of an improvement effort based on common objectives, local ownership and shared learning to accelerate implementation of best practices, 78 facilities demonstrated rapid improvement in compliance with standards for post-partum haemorrhage prevention and Essential Newborn Care as well as a reduction in estimated postpartum haemorrhage. This approach yields rapid results and can be efficiently spread to improve care in low-resource settings.