Union Health and Family Welfare Centers in Chittagong and Munshiganj: Are they ready to provide 24-hour normal delivery services? (Brief)

To date, the Directorate General of Family Planning (DGFP) of Bangladesh’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has established approximately 3,900 Union Health and Family Welfare Centers (UHFWCs) in rural areas providing: family planning; menstrual regulation; vaccinations; and general, reproductive, and maternal health services six days a week. About 1,500 UHFWCs have been upgraded with the necessary staff and equipment to provide normal delivery services round-the-clock in rural areas. In rural areas, public-sector health facilities, including UHFWCs, contribute to only 12 percent of institutional deliveries. Until now, Family Welfare Visitors (FWVs) posted at UHFWCs performed only 0.3 percent of deliveries. This means that UHFWCs and FWVs are not optimally utilized to increase the rate of institutional deliveries. The Population Council is providing technical assistance to the DGFP to implement an Operations Research project that tests the effectiveness of a model to provide round-the-clock normal delivery services in 24 UHFWCs in Chittagong and Munshiganj districts. As a part of the project, the status of all UHFWCs from two study districts was assessed. This brief reports on the outcome of this facility assessment