Barriers and Promising Interventions for Improving Maternal and Newborn Health in Sierra Leone

by Herschderfer, Kathy

• ISBN13: 9789460222009
• ISBN10: 9460222005
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-11-01
• Publisher: STYLUS PUBLISHING LLC
• More Book Details

Summary

Since the end of the civil conflict in 2002, Sierra Leone has worked hard on rebuilding its health system. Although progress has been made and health outcomes are slowly improving, the number of women who die as a result of complications during pregnancy and/or childbirth is still one of the highest in the world. The government has made maternal, newborn and child health a priority program. KIT and partners in Sierra Leone and in the Netherlands have joined forces with the Government of Sierra Leone to help achieve better health for mothers and newborns through knowledge generation, capacity strengthening and information sharing activities. This work is carried out within the Public Private Partnership (PPP)- Sierra Leone, one of the five programs that make up the MDG5 Meshwork for Improving Maternal Health. This report includes the justification, methodology, results and recommendations of a rapid assessment conducted in 2010 that identified factors influencing health seeking-behavior for maternal and newborn health care in Sierra Leone. Beliefs, practices and decision-making processes for seeking care for pregnancy, delivery, postnatal and neonatal care and family planning are emerging from this qualitative study carried out in five districts. Interventions and promising practices implemented by the Ministry of Health and Sanitation with or without nongovernmental organization (NGO) support and by local authorities are also identified and assessed based on the perceptions of the users and providers of maternal and newborn health services.