Spotlight On Maternal And Child Health

Since 1979, IntraHealth has worked around the world to improve health care for vulnerable women and their families.  We support providers to improve maternal and child health services, collaborate with national and local leaders to strengthen policies and systems, and assist communities to voice their own needs and become better prepared to respond to obstetric and neonatal emergencies.

Currently, IntraHealth is working with the government of India to reduce maternal, newborn, and childhood mortality and malnutrition rates in Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand. These states are home to approximately 10 million pregnant women and 14 million children under the age of five; they also have some of the highest maternal and child mortality rates in the world. IntraHealth focuses on establishing which health care interventions are most effective, promoting these models on a national level and building the capacity of the government and its partners to implement the recommended programs in Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand.

As part of IntraHealth’s comprehensive approach to strengthening decentralized health care services in Rwanda, we are supporting innovative approaches to increase women’s and children’s access to health care. These initiatives include community-run health insurance programs (mutuelles), which have significantly increased the number of people receiving services, and District Incentive Funds, small grants that local authorities can use for such purposes as bringing electricity to health facilities and helping women and families generate income to pay their mutuelle dues.

IntraHealth supports Senegal’s Ministry of Health and Medical Prevention's efforts to cut the maternal mortality rate by 75% and child mortality rate by 67%. We are working toward these ambitious goals by empowering girls and women in making health care decisions; engaging men in family planning, safe motherhood and involved fatherhood; and improving health care provider training, accountability and accessibility.

In Armenia, IntraHealth is assisting the Ministry of Health and partners to revitalize maternal and child health care by enhancing the role of rural nurses, engaging communities in health services, refurbishing rural health facilities and strengthening systems to ensure patients who need higher levels of care are appropriately referred. This work has included developing educational materials for providers, building clinical skills and quality in referral facilities and identifying regional clinical staff with the skills, experience and enthusiasm to serve as champions and trainers of rural nurses.

Through the global Capacity Project, IntraHealth collaborates with health ministries and local partners in 23 countries to plan for and increase the number of skilled health care workers, support them on-the-job and extend their services to a wider range of people. From Belize to Zanzibar, this means that more trained health care workers will be available to provide vital health services to women and children.

Each country faces different health care challenges. By listening to and working with the countries’ leadership and communities IntraHealth aims to create sustainable and accessible health care for women and their families.  

We gratefully acknowledge the support of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which funded the assistance described in this article, and the valuable contributions of our global and local partners on these projects and programs.