Evaluation of the impact of the Mother and Infant Health Project on maternal and infant health outcomes in Ukraine

Olena Nizalova, Kyiv Economics Institute
Maria Vyshnya, Kyiv Economics Institute

The relationship between the quality of obstetric care and maternal and infant health outcomes is difficult to document for various reasons: endogeneity of care use and inseparability of quality from the quantity (availability) of care being the most severe. This paper contributes to the literature by evaluating the health effects of the quality improvements in prenatal care and labor and delivery services in a quasi-experimental setting. Employing program evaluation methods we find that the treatment areas have exhibited larger decline in both maternal mortality and morbidity compared to the control areas. This decline is found to be partially due to the Project’s impact on earlier attendance of the prenatal clinics, increased share of normal deliveries, and reduction in C-sections. We find that the MIHP participation has no significant impact either on the abortion rates or on the use of pills contraception, or on the infant mortality and morbidity.