Evaluation of the impact of strengthening Union Health and Family Welfare Centers for providing 24/7 normal delivery services in Bangladesh

In Bangladesh, the majority of the infant deliveries in rural areas take place at homes where there is a higher risk of morbidity and mortality. Most Union Health and Family Welfare Centers (UHFWCs) are unable to provide 24-hour normal delivery services in close proximity to most rural women. With this point of view, the Population Council has provided technical assistance to the Directorate General of Family Planning to implement an operations research (OR) study in 24 UHFWCs to test the effectiveness of a model to strengthen UHFWCs so that they can provide such services. This report presents the findings of, broadly, three interventions—human resource strengthening, community participation, and referral linkage strengthening—that were implemented for 12 months. These findings provide useful insights for understanding the processes needed to provide 24-hour normal delivery services at the UHFWCs