Regional scale up of key elements of WHO recommendations on antenatal, intrapartum and postnatal care

The suite of WHO guidelines for maternal and newborn care was completed in 2022 with the release of the WHO recommendations on women and newborn care after birth for a positive postnatal experience. These join WHO’s antenatal, intrapartum, and postpartum haemorrhage prevention guidelines. WHO has developed an implementation toolkit for antenatal care and are currently developing toolkits for intrapartum and postnatal care.  

The extent to which the WHO recommendations have been implemented across the Asia-Pacific region is unknown, as are the specific barriers and enablers to implementation. This project explores barriers, facilitators and strategies for implementing WHO maternal health guidelines in three LMICs in the Asia-Pacific region. This project will be conducted in India, Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Thailand, and adapted from our previous work in Myanmar, Uganda, Tanzania and Ethiopia, based on the KTA framework. This project aims to develop context-specific implementation strategies for successful translation of key WHO recommendations into clinical practice and policy in India, PNG and Thailand, with applicability to other LMICs countries in the region.