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Every Woman Every Newborn EverywherE
Healthy Futures

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Quality of care

© UNFPA/Eduard Bîz.
Valentina, from Odessa, Ukraine, while in labour at the Municipal Clinical Hospital Nr.1 from Chisinau, Moldova,  in April 2022.

There has been an unprecedented improvement in access to essential care and services in the past ten years; yet, women, adolescent girls and babies continue to die at an unacceptable rate during pregnancy, childbirth and the first month after birth.

The culprit is the quality of the care they receive. In fact, poor-quality care is responsible for more deaths than lack of access to care in low-and middle income countries.

‘Quite honestly, there can be no universal health coverage without quality care.

– World Health Organization Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

©UNFPA/Luis Tato.
Yvonne (right) waits along with other pregnant women to be attended by a midwife prior to a screening with portable ultrasound technology at Ntimaru Sub County Level 4 Hospital in Kehancha, Migori County, Kenya in June 2022.

Quality health services provide care that is:

The World Health Organization released in 2016 a Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Quality of Care Standards Framework detailing the components of quality care and what it takes to implement it:

Many countries are building quality into their health systems,  an arduous process to change at national, subnational and community levels the way health services are designed – with the engagement of the communities they serve – and provided. 

Improving quality of care requires:

  • Good governance;
  • A skilled and competent health workforce that is supported and motivated;
  • Financing mechanisms that enable and encourage quality care;
  • Medicines, devices and technologies that are available, safe and appropriately regulated;
  • Accessible and well-equipped healthcare facilities.

See also the work of the Quality of Care Network.

Source: Quality of Care, World Health Organization https://www.who.int/health-topics/quality-of-care.

The impact

  • Improved quality of care could save up to 1 million newborn and 150,000 women lives each year*.
  • 60% of deaths in low-and-middle income countries from conditions requiring healthcare are due to poor quality care.**
  • An estimated 1.8 billion people (24% of the world’s population), live in fragile contexts that struggle to deliver quality essential health services. A large proportion of preventable maternal, childhood and neonatal deaths occur in these settings***.

* The Lancet Global Health Commission on High Quality Health Systems in the SDG Era.
**  and *** Key data https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/quality-health-services.

Every Woman Every Newborn Everywhere calls for quality care as an essential step to reduce maternal and newborn mortality and stillbirths.

©UNFPA/Zaeem Abdul Rahman.
A midwife, who is supported by the UNFPA Mobile Health Team, providing services to a patient in the earthquake affected Gayan District, Paktika, Afghanistan, in July 2022.

News and events

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Resources

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Strengthening Implementation of Maternal and Perinatal Death Surveillance and Response (MPDSR): Moving from Data to Action

A new BMC supplement on Maternal and Perinatal Death Surveillance and Response (MPDSR) looks at what implementation looks like in practice, highlighting research and programmatic insights from low- and middle-income countries working to improve MPDSR systems at national and subnational levels.The supplement ‘Strengthening Implementation of Maternal and Perinatal Death Surveillance and Response (MPDSR): Moving from Data to Action’ features studies that explore:

 • Rapid MPDSR tools in humanitarian crises (Tigray, Ethiopia)
 • Community engagement to reduce blame and build trust
 • The economic case for investing in MPDSR
 • Country experiences from Nigeria, North Macedonia, and Sri Lanka
 • Measuring implementation progress in Uganda

Additional papers will be published on a rolling basis through 2025.

View Resource

Consolidated guidelines for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of postpartum haemorrhage

Published by the World Health Organization, the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) and the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM), the guidelines highlight the urgent need for earlier detection and faster intervention for PPH. They focus on the care of women during pregnancy, childbirth and the immediate postpartum period in any health care setting.

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Compendium on respectful maternal and newborn care

The compendium supports efforts to end mistreatment and achieve respectful maternal and newborn care. It is published by WHO together with UNFPA, UNICEF and the United Nations’ Special Programme on Human Reproduction (HRP), with support from Jhpiego and the MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership programme. 

The purpose of the compendium is to consolidate key evidence, tools and resources to support the practical implementation of respectful maternal and newborn care across different contexts. It provides programme managers with essential background to build a foundational understanding of mistreatment and respectful care. As such, it serves as a comprehensive resource that integrates theory with practice.

View Resource

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Quality of care

Health workforce – Midwifery

Commodities

Maternal and Perinatal Death Surveillance and Response

Quality of Care Network

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Photo © 2020 WHO / Tatiana Almeida
Midwives during WHO Head of Sub-Office Dr Kai von Harbou visit to Hope Field Hospital

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