Background: A Maternity Waiting Home (MWH) is a facility, within easy reach of a hospital or health centre which provides Emergency Obstetric Care (EmOC). Women may stay in the MWH at the end of their pregnancy and await labour. Once labour starts, women move to the health facility so that labour and giving birth may be assisted by a skilled birth attendant. The aim of the MWH is to improve accessibility and thus reduce morbidity and mortality for mother and neonate should complications arise. Some studies report a favourable effect on the outcomes for women and their newborn. Others show that utilisation is low and barriers exist. However these data are limited in reliability.
Objectives: To assess the effects of a maternity waiting facility on maternal and perinatal health.
Search strategy: We searched the Cochrane Pregnancy and Childbirth Group's Trials Register (April 2009), CENTRAL (The Cochrane Library 2009, Issue 1), MEDLINE (1966 to April 2009), EMBASE (1980 to April 2009), CINAHL (1982 to April 2009), African Journals Online (AJOL) (April 2009), POPLINE (April 2009), Dissertation Abstracts (April 2009) and the National Research Register archive (March 2008).
Selection criteria: Randomised controlled trials including quasi-randomised and cluster-randomised trials that compared perinatal and maternal outcome in women using a MWH and women who did not.
Data collection and analysis: There were no randomised controlled trials or cluster-randomised trials identified from the search.
Main results: There were no randomised controlled trials or cluster-randomised trials identified from the search.
Authors' conclusions: There is insufficient evidence to determine the effectiveness of Maternity Waiting Facilities for improving maternal and neonatal outcomes.