Women Health

Ndola Prata's undergraduate student exceptional communications!

December 5, 2024

Victoria Lee, Drexler Anthony T. Madamba, Kendy Mendoza, and Hazel Warner, undergraduate students from Ndola Prata's PH181 course, Poverty and Population, have been in touch with Congressional Representatives in Washington DC, Journalist Alisha Haridasani Gupta (New York Times) and Governor Inslee (Washington). Click here to read the students' exceptional work!

Training traditional birth attendants on the use of misoprostol and a blood measurement tool to prevent postpartum haemorrhage: lessons learnt from Bangladesh

Ndola Prata
Suzanne Bell
Paige Passano
Daniel Bohl
Arshadul Islam
2015

A consensus emerged in the late 1990s among leaders in global maternal health that traditional birth attendants (TBAs) should no longer be trained in delivery skills and should instead be trained as promoters of facility-based care. Many TBAs continue to be trained in places where home deliveries are the norm and the potential impacts of this training are important to understand. The primary objective of this study was to gain a more nuanced understanding of the full impact of training TBAs to use misoprostol and a blood measurement tool (mat) for the prevention of postpartum...

Assessing political priority for reproductive health in Ethiopia

Ndola Prata
Anna Summer
2016

Ethiopia is among the top six countries contributing to the highest numbers of maternal deaths globally. The Ethiopian total fertility rate was estimated at 4.8 in 2011, and the use of contraceptives by married women was 29%. Lack of knowledge, cultural stigma surrounding abortion, and barriers to access of services contribute to persistently high rates of unsafe abortion and abortion-related mortality. This study seeks to assess the generation and institutionalization of political priority for reproductive health within the political systems of Ethiopia. Interviews with key policy makers...

Is attendant at delivery associated with the use of interventions to prevent postpartum hemorrhage at home births? The case of Bangladesh

Ndola Prata
Suzanne Bell
Martine Holston
Mohammad A Quaiyum
2015

Hemorrhage is the leading cause of maternal mortality in Bangladesh, the majority of which is due to postpartum hemorrhage (PPH), blood loss of 500 mL or more. Many deaths due to PPH occur at home where approximately 77% of births take place. This paper aims to determine whether the attendant at home delivery (i.e. traditional birth attendant (TBA) trained on PPH interventions, TBA not trained on interventions, or lay attendant) is associated with the use of interventions to prevent PPH at home births.

Methods: Data come from operations research to determine the safety...

Modeling maternal mortality in Bangladesh: the role of misoprostol in postpartum hemorrhage prevention

Ndola Prata
Suzanne Bell
Md Abdul Quaiyum
2015

Bangladesh is one of the few countries that may actually achieve the fifth Millennium Development Goal (MDG) in time, despite skilled birth attendance remaining low. The purpose of this paper is to examine the potential role misoprostol can play in the decline of maternal deaths attributed to postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) in Bangladesh.

Methods: Using data from a misoprostol and blood loss measurement tool feasibility study in Bangladesh, observed cause specific maternal mortality ratios (MMRs) were estimated and contrasted with expected ratios using estimates from the...

Women’s Limited Choice and Availability of Modern Contraception at Retail Outlets and Public-Sector Facilities in Luanda, Angola, 2012–2015

Ndola Prata
Benjamin Nieto-Andrade
Eva Fidel
Rebecca Simmons
Dana Sievers
Anya Fedorova
Suzanne Bell
Karen Weidert
2017

Despite high rates of unintended pregnancy, access to a wide range of contraceptive methods, especially injectables and long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs), is severely limited in both public and private facilities. Knowledge of contraceptive choices is likewise limited, yet a substantial proportion of women are not using their preferred method among the methods they know of.

Abstract:

In Angola, many women want to use family planning but lack access to affordable and preferred methods. This article assesses the link between women’s choice and...