Improving the quality and coverage of intrapartum care globally

Considerable efforts have been made in the past two decades to encourage and support pregnant women in attending health facilities for labour and childbirth, with the aim of reducing preventable morbidity and mortality among mothers and newborns.

However, even where pregnant women are able to reach and utilise health facilities, there may be insufficient numbers of skilled birth personnel available, delays in the use of life-saving interventions or a lack of critical infrastructure, equipment, commodities or training – all of which restrict the capacity of health services to provide good-quality care to all women.

Conversely, in many health care facilities the overuse of obstetric interventions (such as labour augmentation or caesarean section) or use of interventions that are not effective or harmful (such as routine episiotomy or continuous fetal monitoring) has become more commonplace.

In addition, many women have described experiencing mistreatment while giving birth in health facilities, which can negatively affect maternal and newborn health outcomes and further discourage women from attending facilities in the future.

There is thus a growing emphasis on the importance of ensuring good-quality, respectful care is available to all women during labour and childbirth.

Projects are available for postgraduate research students to work with the Global Women’s and Newborn’s Health Group on this topic at the Burnet Institute in Melbourne.

Available projects include:

• exploring feasibility, acceptability and effectiveness of safe maternal sleeping positions during pregnancy
• exploring what self-care interventions are safe and effective during pregnancy and postpartum
• understanding women’s values and preferences associated with calcium supplementation prior to and during pregnancy
• analysing the coverage of antenatal ultrasound in low-middle income countries.