Improving Access to Quality Maternity Care to Reduce Maternal and Newborn Deaths

A health facility in Kigoma Region, Tanzania

Since 2012 CDC, in partnership with the CDC Foundation, has collaborated on The Maternal and Reproductive Health in Tanzania Project in Kigoma Region, where rates of maternal and infant death were high. The project was carried out by partners working in different project areas, with the collective goal of improving the health of women and their newborns and reducing the number of deaths in the period around childbirth. The project took the following approach:

• To improve the quality of health services, especially emergency obstetric care.
  • Supplied essential drugs, equipment, and supplies for Emergency Obstetric and Neonatal Care (EmONC).
  • Improved the skills of health care providers by providing training and supportive supervision in EmONC.
• To make maternity care more accessible, including emergency obstetric care.
  • Upgraded health facilities so that more facilities could provide emergency obstetric care.
  • Community health workers and leaders conducted outreach activities to support greater use of health services.
• To improve access to contraception to enable women and their families to prevent unwanted pregnancies.
  • Provided training in contraceptive methods and counseling.
  • Equipped health facilities to provide full range of contraceptive methods.
  • Integrated family planning service delivery with other community events.

The exterior of a health facility in Kigoma Region, Tanzania