Project R-14414

Improving Maternal Health Services in Jimma, Ethiopia (Research)

Introduction: There is high maternal mortality in Ethiopia. Maternal healthcare services are not adequately addressed. Traditional birth attendants continued helping mothers during pregnancy, childbirth, and after birth without any help from the health system, and they also decide on the place of delivery for pregnant mothers. There is also no integration between traditional birth attendants and the formal healthcare system. There are some interventions done so far to improve quality of healthcare, but there are still huge gaps in addressing patient safety and keeping quality healthcare. Therefore, this project is aimed to work on traditional birth attendants, as maternal health promoter at community level and applying clinical audit to improve the quality of maternal healthcare services at primary healthcare units in Jimma, Ethiopia. Objective: To improve maternal health services through community-level intervention and evidence-based healthcare in Jimma, Ethiopia Methods: The project will be classified in phases from phase one to three. There will be intervention and control woredas. Under phase one, we will conduct baseline assessment, the qualitative and quantitative study will be conducted. Under phase two we will design intervention based on the baseline assessment. the intervention will be capacity building and supportive supervision for community level structure (traditional birth attendants and others) and primary healthcare units. Under phase three we will do end-line assessment to evaluate the effects of the intervention. Both qualitative and quantitative study will be conducted. Workplan: The project will be conducted from 2024 to 2027.

19 December 2023 - 31 May 2027