Strengthening health & family welfare centers
The Population Council, an international NGO has released new findings from its operations research study titled Strengthening Health and Family Welfare Centers for Providing Round-the-Clock Normal Delivery Services, according to a press release.
The Population Council has provided technical assistance to the Directorate General of Family Planning, Bangladesh to implement an Operations Research (OR) study in 24 Union Health and Family Welfare Centers (UHFWCs) of Chittagong and Munshiganj districts to test the effectiveness of a model to strengthen UHFWCs so that they can provide 24-hour normal delivery services.
Broadly, three interventions, namely, human resource strengthening, community participation, and referral linkage strengthening were implemented for 12 months. Six UHFWCs from Comilla district served as control sites.
Findings suggest a higher rate of institutional delivery in the intervention districts (Chittagong 72%, Munshiganj 79%) than the control district (53%). People choose private hospitals over public hospitals as physical amenities e.g., environment, cleanliness and attendant accommodation etc are better in private facilities.
The unavailability of caesarean delivery provision at the UHFWCs and many upazila-level government facilities is the key supply-side problem that prompts women to go to private clinics. Capacity building of UHFWC providers on delivery complications management should be enhanced.
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