Despite progress in recent years, an estimated 273,500 women died as a result of maternal causes in 2010. The
burden of these deaths is disproportionately bourne by women who reside in low income countries or belong to
the poorest sectors of the population of middle or high income ones, and it is particularly acute in regions where
access to and utilization of facility-based services for childbirth and newborn care is lowest. Evidence has shown
that poor quality of facility-based care for these women and newborns is one of the major contributing factors for
their elevated rates of morbidity and mortality. In addition, women who perceive the quality of facilty-based care
to be poor,may choose to avoid facility-based deliveries, where life-saving interventions could be availble. In this
context, understanding the underlying factors that impact the quality of facility-based services and assessing the
effectiveness of interventions to improve the quality of care represent critical inputs for the improvement of
maternal and newborn health. This series of five papers assesses and summarizes information from relevant
systematic reviews on the impact of various approaches to improve the quality of care for women and newborns.
The first paper outlines the conceptual framework that guided this study and the methodology used for selecting
the reviews and for the analysis. The results are described in the following three papers, which highlight the
evidence of interventions to improve the quality of maternal and newborn care at the community, district, and
facility level. In the fifth and final paper of the series, the overall findings of the review are discussed,
research gaps are identified, and recommendations proposed to impove the quality of maternal and newborn health
care in resource-poor settings.