Community mobilization for postabortion care in Kenya: Baseline evaluation report

Maternal health complications, including those arising from unsafe abortion and miscarriage, are a leading cause of morbidity among women in Kenya. These realities necessitate interventions to prevent unintended or unwanted pregnancies and to ensure access to quality care for women with postabortion complications. In response to this need, the RESPOND Project designed an intervention package aimed at increasing awareness and use of postabortion care (PAC) services and improving family planning, reproductive health, and maternal health outcomes. As part of the intervention, RESPOND works with districts and communities to: strengthen service delivery points to provide PAC services; conduct community mobilization to improve community involvement and knowledge; build community capacity to address PAC needs; and encourage involvement of those most marginalized and most affected by postabortion complications in community action. This baseline evaluation provides a general picture of community knowledge and behaviors and of the range of service options that are available, and will be useful for honing and refining the intervention