title: Ensuring effective Essential Obstetric Care in resource poor settings.
abstract: Although Emergency Obstetric Care (EOC) is globally accepted as a key strategy to improve maternal health and reduce maternal mortality, there is still a lot of debate surrounding its use--What is EOC? Is it evidence-based? How can we measure it? How can we improve access to EOC? This paper attempts to answer these questions. Although there are no randomized controlled trials, there is strong evidence from quasi-experimental, observational and ecological studies that EOC should be a critical component of any programme to reduce maternal mortality. This paper also identifies the barriers to accessing EOC and proposes strategies to overcome them which could contribute to achieving Millennium Development Goal 5.
authors.affiliation: Maternal and Newborn Health Unit, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, UK. hofmanjj@liv.ac.uk
authors.forename: E J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Kongnyuy
authors.forename: J J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Hofman
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: van den Broek
mesh_terms: D003906:Developing Countries; D004632:Emergency Medical Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D005260:Female; D014943:Global Health; D006291:Health Policy; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D008427:Maternal Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D008428:Maternal Mortality; D008429:Maternal Welfare; D007744:Obstetric Labor Complications / Q000517:prevention & control*; D009774:Obstetrics / Q000458:organization & administration*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011787:Quality of Health Care