scholarly journals The Impact of Paid Maternity Leave on Maternal Health.

Author(s):  
Aline Butikofer ◽  
Julie Riise ◽  
Meghan Skira
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aline Bütikofer ◽  
Julie Riise ◽  
Meghan M. Skira

We examine the impact of the introduction of paid maternity leave in Norway in 1977 on maternal health in the medium and long term. Using administrative data combined with survey data on the health of women around age 40, we find the reform improved a range of maternal health outcomes, including BMI, blood pressure, pain, and mental health. The reform also increased health-promoting behaviors, such as exercise and not smoking. The effects were larger for first-time and low-resource mothers and women who would have taken little unpaid leave in the absence of the reform. (JEL I12, J13, J16, J32)


Author(s):  
Jason Reece

Housing quality, stability, and affordability have a direct relationship to socioemotional and physical health. Both city planning and public health have long recognized the role of housing in health, but the complexity of this relationship in regard to infant and maternal health is less understood. Focusing on literature specifically relevant to U.S. metropolitan areas, I conduct a multidisciplinary literature review to understand the influence of housing factors and interventions that impact infant and maternal health. The paper seeks to achieve three primary goals. First, to identify the primary “pathways” by which housing influences infant and maternal health. Second, the review focuses on the role and influence of historical housing discrimination on maternal health outcomes. Third, the review identifies emergent practice-based housing interventions in planning and public health practice to support infant and maternal health. The literature suggests that the impact of housing on infant health is complex, multifaceted, and intergenerational. Historical housing discrimination also directly impacts contemporary infant and maternal health outcomes. Policy interventions to support infant health through housing are just emerging but demonstrate promising outcomes. Structural barriers to housing affordability in the United States will require new resources to foster greater collaboration between the housing and the health sectors.


2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adweeti Nepal ◽  
Santa Kumar Dangol ◽  
Anke van der Kwaak

Abstract Background The persistent quality gap in maternal health services in Nepal has resulted in poor maternal health outcomes. Accordingly, the Government of Nepal (GoN) has placed emphasis on responsive and accountable maternal health services and initiated social accountability interventions as a strategical approach simultaneously. This review critically explores the social accountability interventions in maternal health services in Nepal and its outcomes by analyzing existing evidence to contribute to the informed policy formulation process. Methods A literature review and desk study undertaken between December 2018 and May 2019. An adapted framework of social accountability by Lodenstein et al. was used for critical analysis of the existing literature between January 2000 and May 2019 from Nepal and other low-and-middle-income countries (LMICs) that have similar operational context to Nepal. The literature was searched and extracted from database such as PubMed and ScienceDirect, and web search engines such as Google Scholar using defined keywords. Results The study found various social accountability interventions that have been initiated by GoN and external development partners in maternal health services in Nepal. Evidence from Nepal and other LMICs showed that the social accountability interventions improved the quality of maternal health services by improving health system responsiveness, enhancing community ownership, addressing inequalities and enabling the community to influence the policy decision-making process. Strong gender norms, caste-hierarchy system, socio-political and economic context and weak enforceability mechanism in the health system are found to be the major contextual factors influencing community engagement in social accountability interventions in Nepal. Conclusions Social accountability interventions have potential to improve the quality of maternal health services in Nepal. The critical factor for successful outcomes in maternal health services is quality implementation of interventions. Similarly, continuous effort is needed from policymakers to strengthen monitoring and regulatory mechanism of the health system and decentralization process, to improve access to the information and to establish proper complaints and feedback system from the community to ensure the effectiveness and sustainability of the interventions. Furthermore, more study needs to be conducted to evaluate the impact of the existing social accountability interventions in improving maternal health services in Nepal.


2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 658-667 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Askew ◽  
Michelle Weinberger ◽  
Aisha Dasgupta ◽  
Jacqueline Darroch ◽  
Ellen Smith ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
J. Kisabuli ◽  
J. Ong'ala ◽  
E. Odero

Infant mortality is an important marker of the overall society health. The 3rd goal of the Sustainable Development Goals aims at reducing infant deaths that occur due to preventable causes by 2030. Due to increased infant mortality the Kenyan government introduced Free Maternal Health Care as an intervention towards reducing infant mortality through elimination of the cost burden of accessing medical care by the mother and the infant. The study examines the impact of Free Maternal Health Care on infant mortality using Intervention time series analysis particularly the intervention Box Jenkins ARIMA (Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average) model. There was significant support that Free Maternal Health Care had a significant impact on infant mortality which was estimated to be a decrease of 10.15% in infant deaths per month.


Author(s):  
Collins Chansa ◽  
Mulenga Mary Mukanu ◽  
Chitalu Miriam Chama-Chiliba ◽  
Mpuma Kamanga ◽  
Nicholas Chikwenya ◽  
...  

Abstract Zambia has been using output-based approaches for over two decades to finance whole or part of the public health system. Between 1996 and 2006, performance-based contracting (PBC) was implemented countrywide with the Central Board of Health (CBoH) as the provider of health services. This study reviews the association between PBC and equity of access to maternal health services in Zambia between 1996 and 2006. A comprehensive document review was undertaken to evaluate the implementation process, followed by a trend analysis of health expenditure at district level, and a segmented regression analysis of data on antenatal care (ANC) and deliveries at health facilities that was obtained from five demographic and health survey datasets (1992, 1996, 2002, 2007 and 2014). The results show that PBC was anchored by high-level political support, an overarching policy and legal framework, and collective planning and implementation with all key stakeholders. Decentralization of health service provision was also an enabling factor. ANC coverage increased in both the lower and upper wealth quintiles during the PBC era, followed by a declining trend after the PBC era in both quintiles. Further, the percentage of women delivering at health facilities increased during the PBC era, particularly in rural areas and among the poor. The positive trend continued after the PBC era with similar patterns in both lower and upper wealth quintiles. Despite these gains, per capita health expenditure at district level declined during the PBC era, with the situation worsening after the PBC era. The study concludes that a nationwide PBC approach can contribute to improved equity of access to maternal health services and that PBC is a cost-efficient and sustainable policy reform. The study calls for policymakers to comprehensively evaluate the impact of health system reforms before terminating them.


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