| Description | Increasing rates of skilled care during childbirth is widely recognized as a priority strategy for reducing maternal mortality, and rates of skilled attendance at childbirth are being used as the target indicator to measure progress toward the 5th Millennium Development Goal of improving maternal health. Globally, however, there is little evidence-based guidance available on how to make skilled care available and accessible in low-resource settings, and in many countries, little or no progress has been made in increasing skilled attendance rates during childbirth. Unfortunately, in some countries there has been a decrease in the use of skilled attendance. For example, in Kenya the percent of births attended by skilled attendants in health facilities has declined from 50% in 1989 to 44% in 1998 and 24% in 2003. |
