Strengthening maternal and newborn health in rural Ethiopia: Early results from frontline health worker community maternal and newborn health training

to describe early results from the Community Maternal and Newborn Health (CMNH) training programme of the Maternal and Newborn Health in Ethiopia Partnership (MaNHEP) project. a non-experimental, descriptive design was employed to assess training implementation. six rural districts of Amhara and Oromiya regions, Ethiopia. 91 Health Extension Workers (HEWs) and 626 Guide Team members including Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) and volunteer Community Health Promoters (vCHPs). CMNH is one aspect of a broader strategy to improve maternal and newborn health at the community level in rural areas of Ethiopia where pregnant women have limited access to health facilities. performance testing of HEWs, TBAs, and vCHPs was conducted to assess transfer of knowledge and skills from CMNH Master Trainer level to CMNH Trainer level, and from CMNH Trainer level to CMNH Guide Team (GT) level on the topic areas of Prevent Problems before Baby is Born and Prevent Problems after Baby is Born. post-training performance scores were significantly higher than immediate pre-training scores for Amhara and Oromiya regions on both topic areas (p