Maternal waiting homes: shortening the distance to safer childbirth.

Abstract

Improving maternal and newborn health outcomes has been a key focus of the Millennium Development Goals and Sustainable Development Goals. To meet these goals, access to and provision of high-quality services of facility-based childbirth are critical. Although 70% of worldwide deliveries occur in a health facility, in rural areas, up to one-third of deliveries do not [Unicef. United Nations Children's Fund, Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies: Taking stock of maternal health New York, May 2019. rev. 2019.] To address this lack of access to facility-based childbirth, in 2015, the World Health Organization (WHO) made a conditional recommendation for maternal waiting homes (MWH)," to be established close to a health facility, where essential childbirth care and/or care for obstetric and newborn complications is provided, to increase access to skilled care for populations living in remote areas or with limited access to services." [WHO. WHO recommendations on health promotion interventions for maternal and newborn health. 2015.].