Project profile — Improving Maternal and Infant Care

The expected intermediate outcomes for this project include: (i) improved gender-sensitive management of ante-natal, intra-partum and post-natal care in the target dispensaries and hospitals; (ii) increased referral of pregnant women and newborns for care in dispensaries by traditional birth attendants and enrollment of HIV positive pregnant women and newborns to the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV program; and (iii) increased health care seeking behaviour for newborn and infant care at dispensaries, including participation in vaccination campaigns, addressing gender and socio-cultural issues.

Results achieved as of the end of the project (July 2015) include: (1) improved access to trained Health Professionals (HPs) and maternal and infant healthcare services; (2) strengthened capacity of the local partner namely the Ukerewe District Health Council (UDHC) to improve the knowledge and health practices of mothers and their newborns; (3) an average 18% increase (from 70% to 88%) in the knowledge of safe delivery practices;(4) an average 13% increase (from 60% to 73%) in the knowledge of gender sensitive topics among HPs; (5) a 15% increase in annual ante-natal care coverage (from 45% to 60%) across all health facilities; (6) a 42% increase in annual intra-partum care coverage (from 45% to 87%) as well as an increase of 25% in post-natal care coverage (from 41% to 66%); and (7) number of deliveries at the health facilities increased by 42% during the three years of the project. This contributed to strengthening the ability of the Ukerewe District to plan and deliver quality maternal and infant health services to reduce mortality rates amongst mothers and infants. Direct beneficiaries included 60,300 mothers, newborns, and infants. Indirect beneficiaries consisted of 310,271 persons living in the project catchment areas.