Setting Priorities for Safe Motherhood Interventions in Resource Scarce Settings

Ndola Prata, University of California, Berkeley
Fiona Greig, University of California, Berkeley
Malcolm Potts, University of California, Berkeley

The Safe Motherhood Initiative, launched jointly by various international organizations brought maternal and child health to the forefront of public concerns. The goal of reducing maternal mortality by 75% between 1990 and 2015 is unlikely to be met. This study aims to guide policy-decision makers in prioritizing the different components of safe motherhood programs. We compile existing data on effectiveness of safe motherhood interventions and cost theses interventions using the WHO's Mother Baby Package (MBP) Costing Spreadsheet. We compare the cost effectiveness of the 18 interventions included in the MBP as well as safe abortion and antenatal vitamin A supplementation in a low, medium, and high infrastructure settings. We perform a budgetary simulation of the three model settings assuming per capita expenditures of $0.50, $0.75, and $1.00 respectively. Finally, we conduct a multivariate sensitivity analysis to assess the contribution to variance of different interventions.