The effect of addressing demand for as well as supply of emergency obstetric care in Dinajpur, Bangladesh.

PURPOSE: The Dinajpur SafeMother Initiative (DSI) was designed to test the impact of several interventions on use of obstetric services in government health facilities in Northwestern Bangladesh during 1998-2001.

INTERVENTION: Facility-based interventions included upgrading health facilities. The sub-district hospitals or Upazila Health Centers (UHCs) had earlier been upgraded to provide basic emergency obstetric care (BEmOC). This project undertook activities designed to improved the quality of care in the facilities which included team-building among providers, case reviews and a stakeholders' committee. CARE introduced a community mobilization intervention, which included birth planning, community support systems for funding, transportation, blood donation etc. for care of women with complications.

METHODS

The intervention area received all interventions. The only intervention in the comparison area was the upgrading of the health facilities to provide basic EmOC. There were no interventions in the control area.

RESULTS

Met need increased by 13% in comparison area but nearly 24% in intervention area. There was no substantial change in the control area. At the end of the project, knowledge of obstetric danger signs was much greater in intervention area than in the other 2 areas.

CONCLUSION

We conclude, therefore, that the best results are achieved through a combination of facility improvement, quality of care activities and targeted community mobilization activities.