Sustainable Maternal Health Care Behavior Improvement Initiative in Nigeria

This privately-funded project works to strengthen and create more efficient systems, structures, and interventions to reduce maternal mortality in three communities of Nigeria. Project interventions focus on the four major causes of maternal mortality and addresses conditions which lead woman to delay seeking life saving treatment for emergency obstetric complications. The project trains facility- and community-based health workers, including traditional birth attendants, in improved maternal health care practices and involves the community through dialogue and advocacy efforts. The establishment of a referral system, including in cases of emergencies, has been established to improve access to care. Pathfinder’s experience in Nigeria has shown that such interventions lead to reduced maternal mortality and morbidity through increases in referrals to health facilities, better knowledge of safe delivery, and decreases in harmful traditional practices. The project has entered its second phase, which includes a special focus on influential individuals such as parents, husbands, and religious and community leaders, involved in a woman’s decision making process. It also seeks to address the external factors that often determine her quality of care. Pathfinder is confident that sustained interventions of this nature will greatly reduce Nigeria’s rate of maternal mortality (currently 800 deaths per 100,000 live births) in coming years.

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Contributor: Anuradha Bhattacharjee
Published Date: March 24, 2008