The Three Delays Model: Maternal Mortality in Context
This past week was very exciting as the public health sub-group had its first meeting. In our reading of, “ Too far to walk: maternal mortality in context, ” we learned about the “Three Delays of Maternal Mortality:”
- The delay to seek care
- The delay to reach proper medical services
- The delay in accessing quality care at a health care facility
As we progress in developing a tool for screening or monitoring pre-eclampsia in Zanibari women, it is imperative that we consider the local public health system. The three delays model allows us to both understand barriers at the interval between onset of obstetric complications and its outcome, and identify at which point in this interval we can optimize healthcare delivery.
Our defined area of focus will be Phase III delay: the delay in receiving adequate and appropriate treatment. Focusing on this phase improves factors in the other two phases of delay. We believe that improving treatment and overall quality of care for complications of pre-eclampsia will serve as a motivator and incentive for Zanzibari women in their decision to seek care (phase I) and with the improvements in the two phases will serve as push factors to improve accessibility to care (phase II). We envision a quick bedside monitoring or screening device that would decrease waiting time, mitigate interactions with overworked staff and therefore improve the woman’s overall experience, motivating her to return in future and recommend the procedure to other women. We will continue to engage public health frameworks such as the Three Delays model of maternal care to guide our innovations and designs.
