LDCs

Prevention of postpartum hemorrhage in low-resource settings: current perspectives

Ndola Prata
Suzanne Bell
Karen Weidert
2013

BACKGROUND: Postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) is the leading cause of maternal death in low-income countries and is the primary cause of approximately one-quarter of global maternal deaths. The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of PPH prevention interventions, with a particular focus on misoprostol, and the challenges and opportunities that preventing PPH in low-resource settings presents.

METHODS: Using PubMed, we conducted a review of the literature on the randomized controlled trials of interventions to prevent PPH. We then searched PubMed and...

Misoprostol for postpartum hemorrhage prevention at home birth: an integrative review of global implementation experience to date

Jeffrey Michael Smith
Rehana Gubin
Martine M Holston
Judith Fullerton
Ndola Prata
2013

BACKGROUND: Hemorrhage continues to be a leading cause of maternal death in developing countries. The 2012 World Health Organization guidelines for the prevention and management of postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) recommend oral administration of misoprostol by community health workers (CHWs). However, there are several outstanding questions about distribution of misoprostol for PPH prevention at home births.

METHODS: We conducted an integrative review of published research studies and evaluation reports from programs that distributed misoprostol at the...

The Impact of Freedom on Fertility Decline

Martha Campbell
Malcolm Potts
Ndola Prata
2013

Although fertility decline often correlates with improvements in socioeconomic conditions, many demographers have found flaws in demographic transition theories that depend on changes in distal factors such as increased wealth or education. Human beings worldwide engage in sexual intercourse much more frequently than is needed to conceive the number of children they want, and for women who do not have access to the information and means they need to separate sex from childbearing, the default position is a large family. In many societies, male patriarchal drives to control female...

Why Bold Policies for Family Planning are Needed Now

Malcolm Potts
Rachel Weinrib
Martha Campbell
2013

Last spring at a Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) talk in Berlin, Melinda Gates used this phrase, “The most transformative thing you can do is to give people access to birth control.” She expressed similar sentiments at the London Summit on Family Planning on July 11, 2012, as did the British Prime Minister David Cameron, and Andrew Mitchell who was then Secretary of State for the Department for International Development, the British equivalent of United States Agency for International Development. The London Summit represented a new focus on international family planning after...

The impact of vouchers on the use and quality of health care in developing countries: a systematic review

Carinne Meyer Brodya
Nicole Bellowsc
Martha Campbell
Malcom Potts
2013

One approach to delivering healthcare in developing countries is through voucher programmes, where vouchers are distributed to a targeted population for free or subsidised health care. Using inclusion/exclusion criteria, a search of databases, key journals and websites review was conducted in October 2010. A narrative synthesis approach was taken to summarise and analyse five outcome categories: targeting, utilisation, cost efficiency, quality and health outcomes. Sub-group and sensitivity analyses were also performed. A total of 24 studies evaluating 16 health voucher programmes were...