Project: The Manthan Project

Date: 2013

Description: The state of Uttar Pradesh contributes close to 30% of maternal and neonatal deaths in India. Women from rural, remote, and disadvantaged families face numerous difficulties in obtaining affordable transportation to appropriate facilities for delivery or for obstetric or neonatal complications; transportation issues have also been cited by the many women who left the facilities before obtaining essential postnatal care. To strengthen emergency medical transportation services in Jhansi district, the Manthan Project demonstrated the implementation of a free integrated transportation service for pregnant women and newborns through public-private partnership called Prasav Parivahan Seva. This brief examines the effect of that service on maternal health.