Skip to main content

Health systems interventions for improving maternal health

Published in Globalization and Health

This collection received funding from University of the Witwatersrand. Some articles in the series were developed in the MASCOT/WOTRO systematic review, funded by the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013; grant agreement number 282507) and NWO/Wotro (Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, WOTRO Science for Global Development). 

The studies included in this collection of publications address maternal health from a health systems' perspective. Several elements in the intersections between maternal health and health systems are addressed. Patient-related factors, such as demand for services, and patient-provider interactions foreground the other articles in the series. Research on patient's needs and experiences provide important contextual information to the systematic mapping of interventional research on maternal health. Drawing on a large mapping of research in low-, middle- and high-income countries 2000-2012, the mapping sums the research topics addressed in maternal health and funders of this research. The publications are based on empirical research using qualitative methods, reviews of programme data, secondary analysis of population-level data from national surveys, and several systematic reviews. Taken together, the series aims to provide a coherent set of findings and analysis, which informs responses to maternal health that move assessments of service delivery or individual clinical interventions, to centre around health systems and comprehensive conceptions of women's needs.

Edited by Prof Matthew Chersich and Dr Duane Blaauw, Centre for Health Policy/MRC Health Policy Research Group, School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa; and Prof Stanley Luchters, Centre for International Health, Burnet Institute, Melbourne, Australia.

  1. This commentary sums the findings of a series of papers on a study that mapped the global research agenda for maternal health. The mapping reviewed published interventional research across low— and middle-inco...

    Authors: Matthew F Chersich and Greg Martin
    Citation: Globalization and Health 2017 13:6
    Content type: Editorial Published on:

  2. For pregnancy to result in a healthy mother and infant, women require adequate nutrition and to be able to access antenatal care, both of which require finances. While most women working in the formal sector i...

    Authors: Fiona Scorgie, Duane Blaauw, Tessa Dooms, Ashraf Coovadia, Vivian Black and Matthew Chersich
    Citation: Globalization and Health 2015 11:37
    Content type: Research Published on:

  3. This review is part of a European Commission project, MASCOT, aimed at reducing maternal and child health inequalities. The purpose was to identify and describe the literature on community-based interventions ...

    Authors: Martha Perry, Francisco Becerra, Josephine Kavanagh, Angéline Serre, Emily Vargas and Victor Becerril
    Citation: Globalization and Health 2015 10:63
    Content type: Research Published on:

  4. Although most of maternal deaths are preventable, maternal mortality reduction programs have not been completely successful. As targeting individuals alone does not seem to be an effective strategy to reduce m...

    Authors: Sima Sajedinejad, Reza Majdzadeh, AbouAli Vedadhir, Mahmoud Ghazi Tabatabaei and Kazem Mohammad
    Citation: Globalization and Health 2015 11:4
    Content type: Research Published on:

  5. The priorities of research funding bodies govern the research agenda, which has important implications for the provision of evidence to inform policy. This study examines the research funding landscape for mat...

    Authors: Katharine Footman, Matthew Chersich, Duane Blaauw, Oona MR Campbell, Ashar Dhana, Josephine Kavanagh, Mari Dumbaugh, Siphiwe Thwala, Leon Bijlmakers, Emily Vargas, Elinor Kern, Francisco Becerra and Loveday Penn-Kekana
    Citation: Globalization and Health 2014 10:72
    Content type: Research Published on:

  6. There is global concern with geographical and socio-economic inequalities in access to and use of maternal delivery services. Little is known, however, on how local-level socio-economic inequalities are relate...

    Authors: Sheetal Prakash Silal, Loveday Penn-Kekana, Till Bärnighausen and Helen Schneider
    Citation: Globalization and Health 2014 10:60
    Content type: Research Published on:

  7. Depression and anxiety are prevalent among women in low- and lower-middle income countries who are pregnant or have recently given birth. There is promising evidence that culturally-adapted, evidence-informed,...

    Authors: Jane Fisher, Hau Nguyen, Priya Mannava, Ha Tran, Thao Dam, Huong Tran, Thach Tran, Kelly Durrant, Atif Rahman and Stanley Luchters
    Citation: Globalization and Health 2014 10:37
    Content type: Research Published on:

  8. There is great impetus to achieve elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (eMTCT) by 2015, and part of this is to identify factors to target to achieve the goal. This study thus identified key patie...

    Authors: Coceka N Mnyani, Adonia Simango, Joshua Murphy, Matthew Chersich and James A McIntyre
    Citation: Globalization and Health 2014 10:36
    Content type: Research Published on:

  9. As in many fragile and post-conflict countries, South Africa’s social contract has formally changed from authoritarianism to democracy, yet access to services, including health care, remains inequitable and co...

    Authors: Bronwyn Harris, John Eyles, Loveday Penn-Kekana, Liz Thomas and Jane Goudge
    Citation: Globalization and Health 2014 10:35
    Content type: Research Published on: