The MOM Project: Delivering Maternal Health Services among Internally Displaced Populations in Eastern Burma
Abstract
Alternative strategies to increase access to reproductive health services among internally displaced populations are urgently needed. In eastern Burma, continuing conflict and lack of functioning health systems render the emphasis on facility-based delivery with skilled attendants unfeasible. Along the Thailand-Burma border, local organisations have implemented an innovative pilot, the Mobile Obstetric Maternal Health Workers (MOM) Project, establishing a three-tiered collaborative network of community-based reproductive health workers. Health workers from local organisations received practical training in basic emergency obstetric care plus blood transfusion, antenatal care and family planning at a central facility. After returning to their target communities inside Burma, these first-tier maternal health workers trained a second tier of local health workers and a third tier of traditional birth attendants (TBAs) to provide a limited subset of these interventions, depending on their level of training. In this ongoing project, close communication between health workers and TBAs promotes acceptance and coverage of maternity services throughout the community. We describe the rationale, design and implementation of the project and a parallel monitoring plan for evaluation of the project. This innovative obstetric health care delivery strategy may serve as a model for the delivery of other essential health services in this population and for increasing access to care in other con…
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The WHO has recommended utilizing trained traditional birth attendants where service gaps exist to health care workers in low-resource settings, and efforts have been successfully executed in Eastern Burma, Burundi, and along the Thai-Myanmar border.
“The WHO has recommended utilizing trained TBAs where service gaps exist to health care workers in low-resource settings (WHO, Citation1970), efforts that have been successfully executed in Eastern Burma (Mullany et al., Citation2008), Burundi (Chi & Urdal, Citation2018), and along the Thai-Myanmar border (White et al., Citation2016).”
From Recommendations to improve maternal mortality among Rohingya women in Bangladeshi refugee camps (2025) · cites this paper as Mullany et al., 2008
Cites
WHO analysis of causes of maternal death: a systematic review
Khan, K. S., Wojdyla, D., Say, L., Gülmezoglu, A. M., & Van Look, P. F. (2006) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(06)68397-9 · Cited by 3,978 · see citing works
Improving the availability of emergency obstetric care in conflict-affected settings
Krause, S. K., Meyers, J. L., & Friedlander, E. (2006) · Global Public Health · doi:10.1080/17441690600679939 · Cited by 19 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Obstetric care in low-resource settings: what, who, and how to overcome challenges to scale up?
Hofmeyr, G. J., Haws, R. A., Bergström, S., Lee, A. C., Okong, P., Darmstadt, G. L., Mullany, L. C., Oo, E. K. S., & Lawn, J. E. (2009) · International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics · doi:10.1016/j.ijgo.2009.07.017 · Cited by 224 · see citing works
Self-citationMullany, L. C., Lee, T. J., Yone, L., Lee, C. I., Teela, K. C., Paw, P., Shwe Oo, E. K., Maung, C., Kuiper, H., Masenior, N. F., et al. (2010) · PLoS Medicine · doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000317 · Cited by 92 · see citing works
Self-citationDelivering maternal and neonatal health interventions in conflict settings: a systematic review
Munyuzangabo, M., Gaffey, M. F., Khalifa, D. S., Als, D., Ataullahjan, A., Kamali, M., Jain, R. P., Meteke, S., Radhakrishnan, A., Shah, S., et al. (2021) · BMJ Global Health · doi:10.1136/bmjgh-2020-003750 · Cited by 91 · see citing works
Mullany, L. C., Lee, C. I., Yone, L., Paw, P., Oo, E. K. S., Maung, C., Lee, T. J., & Beyrer, C. (2008) · PLoS Medicine · doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0050242 · Cited by 77 · see citing works
Self-citationCommunity health workers in humanitarian settings: Scoping review
Miller, N. P., Ardestani, F. B., Dini, H. S., Shafique, F., & Zunong, N. (2020) · Journal of Global Health · doi:10.7189/jogh.10.020602 · Cited by 72 · see citing works
Armed conflict and maternal mortality: A micro-level analysis of sub-Saharan Africa, 1989–2013
Kotsadam, A., & Østby, G. (2019) · Social Science & Medicine · doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.112526 · Cited by 66 · see citing works
Perera, S., Maung, C., Hla, S., Moo Moo, H., Than Lwin, S., Bruck, C., Smith, T., Bakker, M., Akhoon, C., & Sarkar, I. N. (2022) · BMJ Open · doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2021-052571 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
Self-citationRecommendations to improve maternal mortality among Rohingya women in Bangladeshi refugee camps
Agarwal, A., Surti, V., & Terry, M. A. (2025) · Health Care for Women International · doi:10.1080/07399332.2024.2349820 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
“…WHO has recommended utilizing trained TBAs where service gaps exist to health care workers in low-resource settings (WHO, 1970), efforts that have been successfully executed in Eastern Burma (Mullany et al., 2008), Burundi (Chi & Urdal, 2018), and along the Thai-Myanmar border (White et al., 2016).”
- Authors
- Mullany, L. C., Lee, C. I., Paw, P., Shwe Oo, E. K., Maung, C., Kuiper, H., Mansenior, N., Beyrer, C., & Lee, T. J.
- Affiliations
- Johns Hopkins University (US)
- Mae Tao Clinic (TH)
- Venue
- Reproductive Health Matters
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2008-01
- Volume
- 16
- Issue
- 31
- Pages
- 44-56
- ISSN
- 0968-8080 (ISSN-L)
- 1460-9576
- OpenAlex
- W2071487440
- Cited by
- 50
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 4
- FWCI
- 2.99
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Reproductive Health Matters (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health › Global Maternal and Child Health
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Health and Conflict Studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health › Maternal and fetal healthcare
- Keywords
- obstetric care, conflict settings, community health workers, traditional birth attendants, emergency obstetric care, blood transfusion, prenatal care, family planning, Thai-Myanmar border, access to reproductive health services, health professions education, health system collapse, project monitoring and evaluation, Karen State, Rakhine State
- MeSH terms
- Myanmar, Emergency Medical Services, Female, Health Services Accessibility, Humans, Maternal Health Services, Obstetrics, Refugees, Program Development, Community Networks, Organizational Case Studies
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
