Missed Opportunities in Maternal and Infant Health (MOMI)
Missed Opportunities in Maternal and Infant Health (MOMI)/ Reducing maternal and newborn mortality and morbidity in the year after childbirth through combined facility and community-based intervention
Project Summary
The main objective of this research project is to improve maternal and newborn health through a focus on the postpartum period, adopting context-specific strategies to strengthen health care delivery and services at both facility and community level in four sub-Saharan countries: Burkina Faso, Kenya, Malawi and Mozambique.
This project focuses on postpartum health care delivery for mothers and newborns in four sub-Saharan countries and will highlight two particular aspects of health care delivery: facility-based care with a focus on child health clinics and community-based care using Community Health Workers. We use the term 'postpartum' to refer to the first year after childbirth.
The 'Missed Opportunities in Maternal and Infant Health' research project is based on the hypothesis that there are significant missed opportunities for improving maternal and child health which could be prevented and that an improved configuration of, and emphasis on, postpartum services will reduce maternal and newborn morbidity and mortality. The research will examine how postpartum services could best be organised to reduce maternal and newborn morbidity and mortality and be provided within existing health systems and constraints.
The aim of the study is to strengthen integrated postpartum health care delivery by conducting health system research in a district (or sub-district) of four sub-Saharan Africa countries: Burkina Faso, Kenya, Malawi and Mozambique. Studies will be conducted to investigate the impact of postpartum health care delivery as well as the determinants of effective and sustainable improvements of health care delivery at scale. This implies a greater research focus on health systems and services rather than on the clinical interventions per se.
Key Project Information
Dates: Feb 2011 - Jan 2016
Principal Investigator: Dr Tim Colbourn
Partner: ICRH Belgium (coordinator), Medical Faculty of the University of Porto (Portugal), Institut de Recherche en Sciences de la Santé (Burkina Faso), ICRH (Kenya and Mozambique), Parent and Child Initiative of the Kamuzu Central Hospital and Ministry of Health (Malawi), Eduardo Mondlane University (Mozambique).
Location: Burkina Faso, Kenya, Malawi and Mozambique
Funding: European Commission
Contact: t.colbourn@ucl.ac.uk
Bejoy Nambiar
Prof Tim Colbourn
Dr Sue Mann
Nehla Djellouli