Addressing the Third Delay in Saving Mothers, Giving Life Districts in Uganda and Zambia: Ensuring Adequate and Appropriate Facility-Based Maternal and Perinatal Health Care.

BACKGROUND: Saving Mothers, Giving Life (SMGL) is a 5-year initiative implemented in participating districts in Uganda and Zambia that aimed to reduce deaths related to pregnancy and childbirth by targeting the 3 delays to receiving appropriate care: seeking, reaching, and receiving. Approaches to addressing the third delay included adequate health facility infrastructure, specifically sufficient equipment and medications; trained providers to provide quality evidence-based care; support for referrals to higher-level care; and effective maternal and perinatal death surveillance and response. METHODS: SMGL used a mixed-methods approach to describe intervention strategies, outcomes, and health impacts. Programmatic and monitoring and evaluation data-health facility assessments, facility and community surveillance, and population-based mortality studies-were used to document the effectiveness of intervention components. RESULTS: During the SMGL initiative, the proportion of facilities providing emergency obstetric and newborn care (EmONC) increased from 10% to 25% in Uganda and from 6% to 12% in Zambia. Correspondingly, the delivery rate occurring in EmONC facilities increased from 28.2% to 41.0% in Uganda and from 26.0% to 29.1% in Zambia. Nearly all facilities had at least one trained provider on staff by the endline evaluation. Staffing increases allowed a higher proportion of health centers to provide care 24 hours a day/7 days a week by endline-from 74.6% to 82.9% in Uganda and from 64.8% to 95.5% in Zambia. During this period, referral communication improved from 93.3% to 99.0% in Uganda and from 44.6% to 100% in Zambia, and data systems to identify and analyze causes of maternal and perinatal deaths were established and strengthened. CONCLUSION: SMGL's approach was associated with improvements in facility infrastructure, equipment, medication, access to skilled staff, and referral mechanisms and led to declines in facility maternal and perinatal mortality rates. Further work is needed to sustain these gains and to eliminate preventable maternal and perinatal deaths.

Integration of the practice of active management of the third stage of labor within training and service implementation programming in Zambia.

INTRODUCTION: Postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) is the leading cause of pregnancy-related mortality (cited at 591 per 100,000 Zambian women), and is responsible for up to 60% of maternal deaths in developing countries. Active management of the third stage of labor (AMTSL) has been endorsed as a means of reducing the risk of PPH. The Ministry of Health/Zambia has incorporated the use of AMTSL into its reproductive health guidelines. METHODS: Midwives employed in five public hospitals and eight health centers were interviewed (N = 62), and 82 observations were conducted during the second through fourth stages of labor. RESULTS: Data from facilities in which oxytocin was available (62 births in 11 settings) indicated that a uterotonic was used in 53 of the births (85.5%); however, AMTSL was conducted in strict accord with the currently recommended protocol (a time-specific use of the uterotonic, controlled cord traction, and fundal massage) in only 25 (40.4%) of births. DISCUSSION: Midwives have concerns about risks of maternal to newborn HIV blood transfusion; it is doubtful that they will adopt the currently recommended practice of delayed cord clamping and cutting. Infrastructure issues and supply shortages challenged the ability to correctly and safely implement the AMTSL protocol; nevertheless, facilities were generally ready to support it.