ReviewAnnals of global health2022
Planning for Maternity Waiting Home Bed Capacity: Lessons from Rural Zambia.
Review in Annals of global health, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- Maternity Waiting Home Utilization and Associated Factors Among Women Who Had Given Birth in the Hard-to-Reach Region of Western Ethiopia: A Mixed-Study.Health science reports · 2025Article
- Qualitative application of the diffusion of innovation theory to maternity waiting homes in rural Zambia.Implementation science communications · 2025Article
- Implementation fidelity of a multisite maternity waiting homes programme in rural Zambia: application of the conceptual framework for implementation fidelity to a complex, hybrid-design study.BMJ public health · 2025Article
- Article
- Article
- Provider and client perspectives on the use of maternity waiting homes in rural Rwanda.Global health action · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Maternity waiting homes (MWH) allow pregnant women to stay in a residential facility close to a health center while awaiting delivery. This approach can improve health outcomes for women and children. Health planners need to consider many factors in deciding the number of beds needed for an MWH. Objective: The objective of the study is to review experience in Zambia in planning and implementing MWHs, and consider lessons learned in determining optimal capacity. Methods: We conducted a study of 10 newly built MWH in Zambia over 12 months. For this case study analysis, data on beds, service volume, and catchment area population were examined, including women staying at the homes, bed occupancy, and average length of stay. We analyzed bed occupancy by location and health facility catchment area size, and categorized occupancy by month from very low to very high. Findings: Most study sites were rural, with 3 of the 10 study sites rural-remote. Four sites served small catchment areas (<9 000), 3 had medium (9 000-11 000), and 3 had large (>11 000) size populations. Annual occupancy was variable among the sites, ranging from 13% (a medium rural site) to 151% (a large rural-remote site). Occupancy higher than 100% was accommodated by repurposing the MWH postnatal beds and using extra mattresses. Most sites had between 26-69% annual occupancy, but monthly occupancy was highly variable for reasons that seem unrelated to catchment area size, rural or rural-remote location. Conclusion: Planning for MWH capacity is difficult due to high variability. Our analysis suggests planners should try to gather actual recent monthly birth data and estimate capacity using the highest expected utilization months, anticipating that facility-based deliveries may increase with introduction of a MWH. Further research is needed to document and share data on MWH operations, including utilization statistics like number of beds, mattresses, occupancy rates and average length of stay.
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