Maternity Waiting Homes (MWHs) are live-in facilities close to or in health facilities, where expectant mothers reside before delivery. MWHs have been used as an intervention to bring mothers closer to care and avoid long travel to reach a facility when they go into labour.
With an increasing focus on system redesign, and improving quality, meaning there may be fewer facilities providing better quality of care, we have to increasingly focus on access interventions to ensure that women who live far away from facilities are not neglected. The evidence of the use and impact of these MWHs has however been mixed. In this webinar Nazeem Muhajarine and Nadege Uwamahoro will present results from their maternity waiting homes intervention research in Mozambique drawing lessons that are generalizable. Then Gizachew Tiruneh from JSI in Ethiopia will reflect on experience from widespread implementation of MWHs in Ethiopia.