Niger Implementation Science Study

The Challenge

Partner with Niger’s Ministry of Health to evaluate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of expanding a proven maternal and newborn care improvement approach to 218 public maternity hospitals, 95% of such facilities in the country.

Overview and Objectives

Evaluated prospectively the effectiveness and cost effectiveness of the scale-up of a high impact intervention package that leverages and adapts best implementation practices identified during an initial Essential Obstetric and Newborn Care (EONC) quality improvement collaborative to 95 of Nigerien public sector maternities.

The approach modified best practices identified by quality improvement teams from 51 maternity hospitals. The teams shared experiences and worked together to improve services related to essential obstetric and newborn care, a set of preventive measures that raises the survival rates of mothers and newborns.

The project provided training and supervision to hospital staff and focused on:

• Active management of the third stage of labor, a set of clinical measures to prevent and treat postpartum hemorrhage, or excessive bleeding after childbirth. Postpartum hemorrhage is the leading cause of maternal deaths;
• Detection and management of eclampsia/pre-eclampsia, a life-threatening pregnancy complication caused by high blood pressure; and
• Essential newborn care.

This quantitative and qualitative study was conducted under the WHO’s Implementation Research Platform.

This project is also known as “Maternal and Newborn Care in Primary Facilities in Niger”.