Table 3 A reflective summary of policy context in perinatal survival
Agenda setting | What is going on in policy discourse | Policy considerations (questions) to ask during future policy making |
|---|---|---|
Prevention of stillbirths | ||
Still not an agenda in policy making, low competing priority | Intention to begin to report stillbirths (occasional statements), but not yet focussed | • Is the technical/epidemiologic separation of stillbirths and newborn death having any social implications? Has this influenced realization of seeing mother and baby as a single unit in any way? Has it affected district/primary healthcare level, how? • Has perinatal survival been considered as an agenda of health promotion, and if so, what could that mean? • Have the policy approach/strategies been community based, empowering individuals and communities, or merely focussed on attempting to correct health behaviours? • Does policy community and implementing units need further realization that perinatal survival is not just a medical issue? • Have health systems (primary health care) been considered to leverage delivery of perinatal healthcare in developing countries? Or are the programmes being implemented just as vertically based technical packages? |
Neonatal Survival | ||
An agenda in policy, healthcare system, but pre-dominantly viewed as a vertical technical/medical initiative | Intention to integrate newborn in child and maternal health within health sector | |