Abstract
Background: Under the Norway-India Partnership Initiative (NIPI), a pilot programme was launched in 2008 to improve the quality of institutional maternal and neonatal care through Yashodas or birth companions. Yashodas were placed at higher-level healthcare facilities across select districts of India to support mother and newborn. This article presents the additional cost of the Yashoda programme from a government perspective and models the potential cost-effectiveness of the Yashoda intervention in averting neonatal deaths. Methods: We estimated the additional costs of the Yashoda programme (2011–2012) using an activity-based costing approach from a provider perspective. Effectiveness measure was estimated as the difference in the average rate of receipt of counselling (for mothers who delivered at district hospitals) between intervention and comparison districts. The potential impact of the Yashoda programme on neonatal mortality was modelled from secondary data assuming a 30 per cent reduction in neonatal mortality among those who received counselling and practiced safe newborn care practices. Results: The additional cost of Yashoda intervention was US$26,350 per year or US$0.83 per live birth. Eighty-four per cent of mothers in the intervention group received essential postpartum newborn care counselling at the facility compared to 62 per cent of mothers in the comparison groups. Through potential change in newborn care practices, the Yashoda intervention was estimated to avert 45 neonatal deaths for a hypothetical cohort of 100,000 mothers who delivered at district hospitals. The incremental cost of the Yashoda intervention was US$1,832 per neonatal death averted or US$29 per life year saved (LYS). Sensitivity analysis showed the incremental cost per LYS of the Yashoda intervention varied between US$14 and US$59. Conclusion: This study concludes that the Yashoda intervention, when scaled up at high delivery load facilities, is a very cost-effective intervention to save newborn lives.
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