Resource Library

This comprehensive WHO guideline (2016) provides global, evidence-informed recommendations on routine antenatal care. This guideline covers recommendations in various areas including nutrition, maternal and fetal assessment, preventative measures, interventions for common physiological symptoms and interventions to improve antenatal care utilization and quality of care.

This report reviews the data elements related to maternal and newborn health (MNH) present in the health management and information (HMIS) systems in 24 low- and lower middle-income countries. The review’s purpose is to quantify the extent to which key data elements are available in the antenatal, delivery and postpartum registers and associated summary reporting of the 24 USAID priority countries for MNH. These findings have been used and will continue to be used to inform the development of global indicators and the revision of national HMIS systems.

The WHO ACTION-I trial makes clear that there are many areas in low- and middle-income countries where antenatal glucocorticoids can be prescribed safely and effectively. Facilities that meet the clinical standards of the trial sites (or to which resources could be provided to meet these standards) should use them. 

The investigators of ACT, which was conducted in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Latin America, used a pragmatic, cluster-randomized design to assess whether antenatal dexamethasone could be safely and effectively administered in community and primary care settings where access to obstetricians and neonatal intensive care was limited. 

In 2015, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended that antenatal glucocorticoids should be used only under certain conditions, including the accurate assessment of gestational age, imminent preterm birth, the absence of maternal infection, and adequate care for childbirth and preterm newborns. The guideline panel and an expert panel that was subsequently convened by the WHO identified the conduct of efficacy trials in hospitals in low-resource countries as a research priority in order to resolve this controversy and guide clinicians and policymakers on the use of antenatal glucocorticoids. We conducted the WHO ACTION-I (Antenatal Corticosteroids for Improving Outcomes in Preterm Newborns) trial, a randomized trial to assess the safety and efficacy of dexamethasone in women in hospitals in low-resource countries who were at risk for early preterm birth.

 The Action 1 trial found that among women in low-resource countries at risk for early preterm birth, the use of dexamethasone resulted in significantly lower risks of neonatal death alone and stillbirth or neonatal death than the use of placebo, without an increase in the incidence of possible maternal bacterial infection. 

Evidence from this updated 2020 Cochrane review supports the continued use of a single course of antenatal corticosteroids to accelerate fetal lung maturation in women at risk of preterm birth. Treatment with antenatal corticosteroids reduces the risk of perinatal death, neonatal death and RDS and probably reduces the risk of IVH. 

PMA Ethiopia Addis Ababa Region Results Brief – this report includes 2019 results from PMA Ethiopia data collected in Addis Ababa from three surveys: service delivery point, panel and cross-section.

PMA Ethiopia Afar Region Results Brief – this report includes 2019 results from PMA Ethiopia data collected in Afar from three surveys: service delivery point, panel and cross-section

PMA Ethiopia Amhara Region Results Brief – this report includes 2019 results from PMA Ethiopia data collected in Amhara from three surveys: service delivery point, panel and cross-section.

PMA Ethiopia Oromiya Region Results Brief – this report includes 2019 results from PMA Ethiopia data collected in Oromiya from three surveys: service delivery point, panel and cross-section.

PMA Ethiopia SNNPR Region Results Brief – this report includes 2019 results from PMA Ethiopia data collected in SNNPR from three surveys: service delivery point, panel and cross-section.

PMA Ethiopia Tigray Region Results Brief – this report includes 2019 results from PMA Ethiopia data collected in Tigray from three surveys: service delivery point, panel and cross-section.

PMA Ethiopia Regional Results Brief – this report includes 2019 results from PMA Ethiopia data collected in six regions from three surveys: service delivery point, panel and cross-section.