Takeup and Impact of Government-Provided Maternal and Child Healthcare

Maternal and infant mortality are a leading public health concern across sub-Saharan Africa, and especially Tanzania, where mortality rates for infants and mothers are 6 and 20 times larger than the United States. Qualitative studies suggest that reducing delays in emergency care is a promising strategy for improving life cycle outcomes around childbirth, but there is very limited research on rapid provision of care to high-risk patients. The researchers aim to evaluate the health and economic impacts of two interventions providing emergency transportation to government health facilities in low-resource settings. The first intervention is a community driver program that triages and transports pregnant women to health care facilities for urgent care. The second intervention is an extension of the community driver program to high-risk infants.