Uterotonic use immediately following birth: using a novel methodology to estimate population coverage in four countries

Publish Date: January 2015
Author: Jim Ricca, Vikas Dwivedi, John Varallo, Gajendra Singh, Suranjeen Prasad Pallipamula, Nazir Amade, Maria de Luz Vaz, Dustan Bishanga, Marya Plotkin, Bushra Al-Makaleh, Stephanie Suhowatsky, Jeffrey Michael Smith
Language: English

While incidence of postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) can be dramatically reduced by uterotonic use immediately following birth (UUIFB) in both community and facility settings, national coverage estimates are rare. To fill this information gap, a methodology for estimating national coverage for UUIFB was developed and piloted in four settings: Mozambique, Tanzania, the state of Jharkhand in India, and Yemen.

This MCHIP co-authored article in BMC Health Services Research highlights available data showing that uterotonics are not used routinely for PPH prevention at home births in any of the settings. It illustrates that this methodology for estimating coverage of UUIFB was found to be feasible and acceptable, and produces useful data to help accelerate efforts to reduce maternal mortality.

To read the open access article, click here.