Health systems and services
Making essential health care available through skilled personnel is regarded internationally as the most appropriate method for reducing maternal and newborn deaths. However, it is clear that health systems in developing countries are currently unable to provide such services, due principally to poor finances and lack of resources.
Factors such as shortages of skilled birth attendants, essential equipment and drugs, and the use of inappropriate care techniques, all contribute to high maternal and neonatal mortality rates. Sector wide approaches (SWAps), which attempt to address and integrate all the components of essential health care, including maternal and child health, are now being adopted to tackle these problems.
- Mobilising financial resources for maternal health
- This paper is part of a Lancet series of articles about maternal survival. It begins by making the case for investment in maternal health and then considers how financial resources can be channeled to maternal health within countries. The paper examines the limitations and successes of conventional financing mechanisms including user fees; tax revenue; and insurance.
Recommended reading
- Who's got the power: transforming health systems for women and children 2005
- ( L.P. Freedman; R.J. Waldman; H. de Pinho / Millennium Project , 2005)
- Recommended reading
- This report, produced by the UN Millennium Project Task Force on Maternal Health and Child Health, outlines challenges in maternal and child health around the world, and considers key interventions to...
- 1 year after The Lancet Neonatal survival series: was the call for action heard?
- ( J.E. Lawn; S.N. Cousens; G.L. Darmstadt / The Lancet , 2006)
- This Lancet article asks what progress has been made in policy, funding, and programmes to address newborn survival, since the publication in 2005 of a series of articles highlighting the huge number ...
- Reducing maternal mortality in the developing world: sector-wide approaches may be the key
- ( E. Goodburn; O. Campbell / British Medical Journal , 2001)
- Recommended reading
- Reducing the rate of maternal mortality by 75 per cent by 2015 is one of the development targets endorsed at numerous international meetings. The technical interventions needed to prevent maternal dea...
Latest Additions
- Weak health systems obstruct progress towards achieving the MDGs for maternal and child health
- ( World Health Organization , 2008)
- This World Health Organization report tracks coverage for interventions needed to attain the Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5. The report is based on data drawn from national surveys and global da...
- The consequences of under-reporting births and deaths in Vietnam
- ( M. Malqvist;L. Eriksson;N. T. Nga / BMC International Health and Human Rights , 2008)
- This paper, published in BMC International Health and Human Rights, analyses to what extent births and neonatal deaths are unreported in Vietnam and discusses the consequences at local and internation...
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