Social Norms
Social norms action with informed and engaged societies
Social Norms
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Morocco Family Planning/Maternal and Child Health Phase V Project

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Funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), this maternal mortality reduction programme focussed on improving maternal health services and the health of children under the age of five. It worked to communicate prevention information to audiences that could effect change (national- and provincial-level policy makers, health professionals, and women of reproductive age along with their families). A special emphasis was placed on upgrading both provider skills and health facilities to give women greater access to emergency obstetric care in the Fes-Boulemane region. The programme also included a national communication strategy to raise awareness about maternal mortality and convey the message that women need not die in childbirth.

The six-year programme ended in 2000.
Communication Strategies

Advocacy and education activities included:

  • a documentary video, Khlat Eddar, which targeted policy makers. The video called for the mobilisation of resources and improvements in emergency obstetric care.
  • materials designed for health professionals - including an information kit that featured a leaflet with cues on life-saving skills and a photo pocket calendar, All for Safe Motherhood, that described four leading obstetric complications and clinical actions that can prevent death in each case - highlighted emergency obstetric care skills. Health professionals were also targeted through a Portable Safe Motherhood information booth set up at conferences, as well as training workshops.
  • a press kit entitled Maternal Mortality in Morocco: the Current Situation was produced and mailed to members of the media.
  • efforts to help women and their families recognise signs of complications during pregnancy and childbirth so they might make timely decisions to seek care. A play, Aide-Toi, le Ciel t'Aidera, toured major urban and rural areas with safe motherhood messages; mobile health units showed the video Bent Ettajer. These materials were also broadcast on national television and on the country's major long-distance bus lines.
Development Issues

Children, Women, Family Planning, Health.

Key Points

The maternal mortality rate in Morocco was 359 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in 1978; in 1992, it was 332 per 100,000 live births. These statistics, translating to a "lifetime risk" of maternal death of 1 in 42 for Moroccan women, identify Morocco as having one of the highest levels of maternal mortality in North Africa.


This programme sought to address the nonmedical factors contributing to maternal deaths, such as cultural and socioeconomic factors that delay the decision to seek care, access and distance factors that delay arrival at an adequate facility, and health system inadequacies that delay the provision of appropriate care.


In general, the programme has been successful in placing maternal mortality reduction high on the national agenda, resulting in mobilisation of resources and improvements in emergency obstetric care. Outreach efforts have helped women and their families learn that an obstetric complication does not mean certain death. In light of these successes, Safe Motherhood activities are in the process of being replicated.

Partners

USAID, John Snow, Inc. (JSI), Information, Education and Communication (IEC) Division of the MOH, Johns Hopkins University Center for Communication Programs (JHU/CCP), the Compagnie de Transports Marocains.

Sources

JHUCCP site.