The Link between Maternal Health Services and Neonatal Mortality: Can Skilled Birth Attendants Decrease Neonatal Mortality?

Kavita Singh, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Paul Brodish, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chirayath Suchindran, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Globally 40% of deaths to children under-five occur in the first month of life, and delivery with a skilled birth attendant is being promoted as a strategy to reduce neonatal mortality. This analysis pooled data from 9 countries for which recent Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data were available. Multilevel logistic regression was used for the analysis, and the key independent variable was whether a skilled birth attendant was present at delivery. An interaction between this key variable and region of the world was tested. Results indicated that skilled birth a attendant was associated with reduced mortality in Latin America and Asia for the first week of life, but only in Latin America for the first day of life. In Asia and Africa we may need to see a vast scale-up of neonatal interventions and training of skilled health workers in order to see reduced neonatal mortality.