Maternal health services are the organized continuum of care that supports women before, during, and after pregnancy, encompassing preconception counselling, antenatal care, skilled attendance at birth, emergency obstetric and newborn care, and postnatal follow-up. Their purpose is to reduce maternal and perinatal m…
Maternal health services are the organized continuum of care that supports women before, during, and after pregnancy, encompassing preconception counselling, antenatal care, skilled attendance at birth, emergency obstetric and newborn care, and postnatal follow-up. Their purpose is to reduce maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality by detecting and managing complications such as obstructed labour, haemorrhage, pre-eclampsia, and infection, and by promoting nutrition, immunization, and birth preparedness. Effective delivery depends on health-system factors including workforce capacity, facility quality, referral pathways, and the cultural and economic determinants that shape whether women seek and receive care. Research in this area examines the utilization of antenatal care and its associated factors, the role of community health workers in delivering maternal and child health care, mobile-telephone communication as a tool for improving service uptake, determinants of caesarean delivery, the integration of traditional birth practices with national health systems, quality-improvement strategies in facilities, and postpartum mental health. Study designs include facility-based cross-sectional surveys, qualitative implementation research, and quality-of-care assessments across multiple low- and middle-income settings. This body of work links service availability and quality to maternal outcomes, and the journal publishes peer-reviewed research spanning the clinical, organizational, and public-health dimensions of maternal care.
12 peer-reviewed articles, ranked by relevance. Each links to its DOI.
The 12 articles above have been cited 46 times in the scholarly literature. Citation data via OpenAlex and Crossref, updated Jun 2026.
A sample of recent works citing this journal's research on Maternal Health Services, linking to each citing work.