We started our activities in January 2020. After eighteen months, we have partially achieved our objectives due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This situation limited our travel from Europe to the countries participating in the study and within the countries themselves. For this reason, some field activities could not be carried out, which caused delays in project progress.
We developed the research protocol and obtained the necessary ethical agreements to conduct this type of research in the four participating countries: Argentina, Vietnam, Thailand and Burkina Faso. We were able to complete preliminary research to understand the context and adapt our tools from the perspective of women and the health system. To compensate for the inability to travel and train healthcare providers on site, we have developed an online 5-days training course that is ready for use. In each of the 32 participating hospitals, we identified several providers who were responsible for implementing the tools to improve caesarean section decision-making. To evaluate the effects of these tools on maternal and perinatal health we set up a health information system in the participating hospitals to collect monthly statistics over the duration of the project. We also planned to measure more specific health indicators by conducting surveys before and after the intervention period among a sample of women who gave birth in the participating hospitals. The first survey (before intervention) was conducted in Burkina Faso and is ongoing in the other three countries. Once this survey is completed, the identified healthcare providers will be trained to implement the intervention tools in each hospital. The project is led by nine partner institutions. Each partner plays a specific role while contributing to the activities of the others. We communicate the products of our research in a variety of ways, including through social networks.
