Effectiveness of the Maternal and Child Health handbook in Burundi for increasing notification of birth at health facilities and postnatal care uptake

ABSTRACTBackground: In Burundi, birth certificate ownership (56.4%) and postnatal care (PNC) coverage (30%) remain low. Birth certificates prove birth registration and allow clients to receive free medical care including PNC. To obtain birth certificates, notification of birth by witnesses is indispensable. However, use of existing parallel home-based records for mother and child has prevented clients from successfully receiving notification of birth and related information.Objective: To assess the effectiveness of the Maternal and Child Health (MCH) handbook for increasing notification of birth at health facilities and PNC uptake.Methods: Pre- and post-introduction measurement were applied including: (i) structured interviews with two different sets of randomly selected mothers having infants aged less than six weeks at the pre- or post-studies; and (ii) secondary data from the national health management information system.Results: 95.1% of mothers had an MCH handbook post-study. Significant improvement ...