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Health communication is a strategy used to disseminate health information to individuals and communities to enable them to make decisions that will enhance their health and well‐being. Particularly in the era of digital health, such strategies tend to emphasize health promotion and disease prevention. Access to essential health information is a fundamental aspect of an effective health‐care system and is therefore crucial for achieving universal health coverage and other health‐related sustainable development goals. Traditional media play a crucial role in enhancing maternal and newborn health, which remains a significant challenge in sub‐Saharan Africa. This narrative literature review explores the use of mass media in disseminating maternal health‐related information in Africa. Twenty‐five articles were considered relevant and included in the review. The result is presented under the following themes (1) access to health information, (2) health‐seeking behavior, (3) birth preparedness, and (4) challenges associated with mass media. UNICEF Strategy for Health 2016–2030, African Union agenda 2063, and sustainable development goal #3 informed this review. As a major stakeholder in the African health sectors, the media plays a critical role in tackling systemic health inequities by promoting the sharing of maternal health information with citizens. There is a need for collaboration among all health stakeholders, as well as a sustainable relationship between media practitioners and health authorities for the promotion of improved maternal health in Africa. Key points: Access to essential health information is a fundamental aspect of an effective health‐care system and is therefore crucial for achieving universal health coverage and other health‐related sustainable development goals.Exposure to media promotes increased usage of antenatal care and skilled birth attendants, reproductive behaviors of women and their spouses, and reduced maternal morbidity and mortality in Africa.A major challenge associated with media intervention, advocacy, and engagement on maternal health issues is inequalities in media access with its attendant effect on maternal health service utilization.The media as a major stakeholder in the health sector plays a critical role in tackling the systemic health inequalities in Africa by promoting the sharing of maternal health information with citizens.There is the need for effective dissemination of health information and education through media advocacy amid the grime statistics of a high rate of mortality, morbidity, and undernutrition of mothers in the continent of Africa.There is need for synergy among all health stakeholders and a sustainable relationship between media practitioners and health authorities for the promotion of good maternal health in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the challenges and barriers to accessing formal maternity care in South East Nigeria from women's perspectives. It is drawn from a study that explored the concept of safe motherhood. The study used a hermeneutic phenomenological approach guided by post-structural feminism. Data were collected through individual semi-structured interviews with 17 women who were attending a formal healthcare facility for antenatal care. Four aspects of the challenges and barriers encountered by women when accessing care in a formal healthcare setting as reported by the participants of the study are as follows: financial constraints, lack of autonomy, negative attitude of the healthcare providers, and healthcare worker strikes. Some participants linked the economic status of women to the lack of education which had an impact on their ability to make an independent decision as to whether to seek formal maternity healthcare or not. Negative attitudes, and frequent strikes of healthcare workers in many cases, discourage women from using the formal maternity healthcare facilities. It is evident that Nigeria did not achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 5, which is to improve maternal health. Achieving the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3.1, which is to reduce the global maternal mortality ratio, requires more than technical approaches. Genuine political will is required if the health system is to be affordable for all women. There is the need to address the gender-related issues that sustain women's low socio-economic status. The government needs to pay the workers as and when due, and a performance appraisal should be in place to ensure improvement in the quality of care offered to women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior to 2006 Irish midwifery education was available only in the form of postgraduate inhospital training to registered nurses. Since 2006 midwifery education continues to be offered as a postgraduate course but it is also available as a direct entry undergraduate programme in a number of Irish third level institutions. In line with these changes in Irish midwifery education, the National Council for the Professional Development of Nursing and Midwifery (2005) identified, among other priorities, the need to provide educational support for student midwives in the clinical area because acquisition of fundamental skills will facilitate their smooth and sound transition into the workforce given that they will be the future functioning midwives. This study explores postgraduate post registration student midwives' experiences of learning support in the clinical area. A qualitative phenomenological approach was used. The students were registered in one of the Schools of Midwifery in an Irish third level institution. A purposive sample of six student midwives participated in individual face-to-face tape-recorded interviews to discuss their experiences. Data analysis revealed six major themes that represent student midwives' experiences of support for learning in the clinical setting - lack of support, learning environment, employee status, support strategies, ways of learning, and theory-practice integration. During the clinical learning process participants felt abandoned by the more senior staff while the senior students and the newly qualified midwives were supportive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]