Understanding the mechanisms through which womens group community participatory intervention improved maternal health outcomes in rural Malawi: was the use of contraceptives the pathway?

摘要

BackgroundWomen's group intervention is a community based initiative through which rural women form groups, meet regularly to discuss maternal health issues affecting them, and come up with locally available solutions. This intervention has been associated with reduced maternal and neonatal mortality in limited resource settings. Nevertheless, the mechanisms through which women's groups influence maternal health outcomes are uncertain. Because contraception reduces the risk of maternal mortality and women's groups also tackled this issue, we speculated that contraceptive use might be the pathway. Consequently, this study investigated whether participation in women's groups was associated with contraceptive use in Malawi.