Despite the availability of technically sound approaches, maternal mortality and other reproductive health problems persist in Uganda and other developing countries. Utilisation of maternal health services remains very low, especially delivery attended by skilled birth attendants. In Oyam and other Ugandan districts smarting out of prolonged insurgency, reproductive health services are generally poorly utilised. Doctors with Africa-CUAMM, an Italian NGO, together with other partners and with funding from the EU, initiated a programme intended to improve the uptake and quality of reproductive health services in Oyam District.
A baseline study was conducted in 2008 to document the initial pattern of use and quality of the existing maternal healthcare services in order to generate baseline data against which the performance of the programme will be evaluated.