Safe Motherhood Applied Research and Training (SMART) Report 4: Knowledge and behaviour of service providers

The Safe Motherhood Applied Research and Training (SMART) project was an operations research project designed to develop and test interventions to reduce maternal, perinatal, and neonatal mortality and morbidity in predominantly rural districts of Pakistan. The study area was in the district of Dera Ghazi Khan; the control area was in the district of Layyah. The project focused on three areas: empowering women to seek appropriate and timely general, maternal, and newborn care; supporting methods that encourage men to play a positive and active role in decision-making and seeking care for their families in matters relating to maternal and newborn care; and improving and strengthening health services. The project had two intervention sites and one control site to look at the impact of two different interventions (within communities and within health facilities). It was expected that project results would be useful to others working toward reducing maternal, perinatal, and neonatal mortality and morbidity, nationally and internationally. The interventions and findings from this study have been published in six reports, of which this is Report 4: Knowledge and Behaviour of Service Providers