This research represents a randomized trial of a program to improve timely postnatal care, comparing post-natal check-ups performed by community health workers delivered either by phone or in person to a control group. The study hypothesis is that when community health workers check on women three days after their delivery we will see improvements in the detection of maternal and child complications, better knowledge of complications and an increase in behaviors that are expected to lead to improved maternal and child health.
Inclusion Criteria:
Women between 18 and 40 years old are eligible for inclusion if they have had a safe normal delivery of a live infant delivery at a Jacaranda Health facility. Eligible women must reside in a 20 km radius from the Jacaranda Health's hospital facility in peri-urban Nairobi. Women must provide a phone number to where they expect that can be reached 2 weeks postpartum.
Exclusion Criteria:
Women who elect to leave the Jacaranda Health facility before the recommended 24 hours, against medical advice, postpartum are not eligible to participate in the postpartum care study. Women and their newborns who are referred to another hospital for higher level emergency obstetric or neonatal care will not be eligible to participate. Women who relocate outside the defined geographic area surrounding the hospital after their delivery are also not eligible.