Pakistan: Maternal Neonatal and Child Health Research Project

After the immense success of the Module 1 of “Disparities in Access to Maternal Health in Punjab; Poverty, Gender and Social Exclusion”, the RMF Pakistan team conducted the Module 2 of this study over a period of 7 months of intensive field work.

Data collection was collected to investigate how gender, caste, and economic status influence women’s healthcare service provider selections. The specific objective of this module was to map women’s experiences of maternal healthcare use, specifically antenatal care, skilled birth attendance, and emergency obstetric care and postnatal care. Completion of this objective was accomplished by attending a daily routine of local health facilities. Based primarily in the District Chakwal, extensive participant observations, in-depth interviews and focus group discussions were conducted to explore how societal constructs such as gender, caste and class influence the quality of care in healthcare facilities ranging from District Headquarter Hospitals (DHQs), Rural Health Centers (RHCs), Basic Health Units (BHUs) to Private Clinics.

The data set includes 18 iterative In-depth interviews of service providers, 53 In-depth exit interviews of ANC and PNC clients, 18 In-depth exit interviews of delivery clients, one maternal death exploration and more than one hundred visits for participant observation. During the visits to hospital based facilities, in this case primarily the DHQ Hospital,  patient-provider interactions, quality of care, facilities being provided and aspects of respectful maternity care has been carefully observed through participant observations.

The data translation and transcription has reached completion and was shared with the University of Alberta team for analysis and write up. As per the MOU with the University of Alberta, this brings the study to a close for RMF as the implementers. Hence the final financial report has been shared and accounts have been closed down.

An in-depth interview with a community woman.

Baby girl born during a participation observation session.

FGD with LHVs.

LHV treating a patient at DHQ Hospital.

PI Dr. Zubia in the field collecting data.

Suction of mouth of a newborn by our researcher.

View of an average village road.

Participation observation of LHV in RHC Health Facility