A woman’s worth: an access framework for integrating emergency medicine with maternal health to reduce the burden of maternal mortality in sub-Saharan Africa
Dublin Core
Title
A woman’s worth: an access framework for integrating emergency medicine with maternal health to reduce the burden of maternal mortality in sub-Saharan Africa
Subject
Three delays, Emergency obstetric care, Healthcare access, Africa, Pregnancy, Gender, Maternal mortality,
Norms, Community, Sustainable development goals, African Federation of Emergency Medicine (AFEM), World Health
Organization (WHO)
Norms, Community, Sustainable development goals, African Federation of Emergency Medicine (AFEM), World Health
Organization (WHO)
Description
Background: Within each of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the World Health Organization (WHO) has
identified key emergency care (EC) interventions that, if implemented effectively, could ensure that the SDG targets
are met. The proposed EC intervention for reaching the maternal mortality benchmark calls for “timely access to
emergency obstetric care.” This intervention, the WHO estimates, can avert up to 98% of maternal deaths across the
African region.
Access, however, is a complicated notion and is part of a larger framework of care delivery that constitutes the
approachability of the proposed service, its acceptability by the target user, the perceived availability and
accommodating nature of the service, its affordability, and its overall appropriateness.
Without contextualizing each of these aspects of access to healthcare services within communities, utilization and
sustainability of any EC intervention-be it ambulances or simple toll-free numbers to dial and activate EMS-will be futile.
Main text: In this article, we propose an access framework that integrates the Three Delays Model in maternal health,
with emergency care interventions. Within each of the three critical time points, we provide reasons why intended
interventions should be contextualized to the needs of the community. We also propose measurable benchmarks in
each of the phases, to evaluate the successes and failures of the proposed EC interventions within the framework. At
the center of the framework is the pregnant woman, whose life hangs in a delicate balance in the hands of personal
and health system factors that may or may not be within her control.
Conclusions: The targeted SDGs for reducing maternal mortality in sub-Saharan Africa are unlikely to be met without a
tailored integration of maternal health service delivery with emergency medicine. Our proposed framework integrates
the fields of maternal health with emergency medicine by juxtaposing the three critical phases of emergency obstetric
care with various aspects of healthcare access. The framework should be adopted in its entirety, with measureable
benchmarks set to track t
identified key emergency care (EC) interventions that, if implemented effectively, could ensure that the SDG targets
are met. The proposed EC intervention for reaching the maternal mortality benchmark calls for “timely access to
emergency obstetric care.” This intervention, the WHO estimates, can avert up to 98% of maternal deaths across the
African region.
Access, however, is a complicated notion and is part of a larger framework of care delivery that constitutes the
approachability of the proposed service, its acceptability by the target user, the perceived availability and
accommodating nature of the service, its affordability, and its overall appropriateness.
Without contextualizing each of these aspects of access to healthcare services within communities, utilization and
sustainability of any EC intervention-be it ambulances or simple toll-free numbers to dial and activate EMS-will be futile.
Main text: In this article, we propose an access framework that integrates the Three Delays Model in maternal health,
with emergency care interventions. Within each of the three critical time points, we provide reasons why intended
interventions should be contextualized to the needs of the community. We also propose measurable benchmarks in
each of the phases, to evaluate the successes and failures of the proposed EC interventions within the framework. At
the center of the framework is the pregnant woman, whose life hangs in a delicate balance in the hands of personal
and health system factors that may or may not be within her control.
Conclusions: The targeted SDGs for reducing maternal mortality in sub-Saharan Africa are unlikely to be met without a
tailored integration of maternal health service delivery with emergency medicine. Our proposed framework integrates
the fields of maternal health with emergency medicine by juxtaposing the three critical phases of emergency obstetric
care with various aspects of healthcare access. The framework should be adopted in its entirety, with measureable
benchmarks set to track t
Creator
Martina Anto-Ocrah , Jeremy Cushman, Mechelle Sanders and Timothy De Ver Dye
Publisher
Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Rochester School of
Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, NY, USA
Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, NY, USA
Date
(2020) 20:3
Contributor
Fajar Bagus W
Format
PDF
Language
Indonesia
Type
Text
Files
Collection
Citation
Martina Anto-Ocrah , Jeremy Cushman, Mechelle Sanders and Timothy De Ver Dye, “A woman’s worth: an access framework for integrating emergency medicine with maternal health to reduce the burden of maternal mortality in sub-Saharan Africa,” Repository Horizon University Indonesia, accessed November 21, 2024, https://repository.horizon.ac.id/items/show/3530.