Can community-based intervention packages reduce maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality?

Abstract

In the last three decades, rates of neonatal mortality in low-income countries have declined much more slowly than the rates of infant and maternal mortality. A significant proportion of these deaths could potentially be addressed by community-based intervention packages, which are defined as delivering more than one intervention via different sets of strategies that include additional training of outreach workers, building community-support, community mobilization, antenatal and postnatal home visitation, training of traditional birth attendants, antenatal and delivery home visitation, and home-based neonatal care and treatment; usually supplemented by strengthening linkages with local health systems.