Executive summary: Maternal Health Initiative (MHI) is shutting down after concluding that postpartum family planning interventions are not as cost-effective as initially believed, based on pilot results in Ghana and further research into the impact of such programs.
Key points:
MHI piloted two postpartum family planning interventions in Ghana, integrating contraceptive counseling into postnatal care (PNC) and child welfare clinic (CWC) appointments.
The PNC intervention showed a potential increase in contraceptive uptake, but the CWC intervention did not show significant effects.
Further research suggests that postpartum family planning programs may have limited impact on unintended pregnancies and short-spaced births due to factors like postpartum insusceptibility and cultural barriers.
MHI considered pivoting to other interventions or areas but concluded that shutting down and redirecting resources to more promising organizations would be more impactful.
Key lessons learned include the importance of focus, avoiding underconfidence, addressing data collection challenges, and being willing to spend for valuable information.
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Executive summary: Maternal Health Initiative (MHI) is shutting down after concluding that postpartum family planning interventions are not as cost-effective as initially believed, based on pilot results in Ghana and further research into the impact of such programs.
Key points:
MHI piloted two postpartum family planning interventions in Ghana, integrating contraceptive counseling into postnatal care (PNC) and child welfare clinic (CWC) appointments.
The PNC intervention showed a potential increase in contraceptive uptake, but the CWC intervention did not show significant effects.
Further research suggests that postpartum family planning programs may have limited impact on unintended pregnancies and short-spaced births due to factors like postpartum insusceptibility and cultural barriers.
MHI considered pivoting to other interventions or areas but concluded that shutting down and redirecting resources to more promising organizations would be more impactful.
Key lessons learned include the importance of focus, avoiding underconfidence, addressing data collection challenges, and being willing to spend for valuable information.
This comment was auto-generated by the EA Forum Team. Feel free to point out issues with this summary by replying to the comment, and contact us if you have feedback.