Evaluation of the impact of the Mother and Infant Health Project in Ukraine.

This paper exploits a unique opportunity to evaluate the impact of the quality change in the labor and delivery services brought about by the Mother and Infant Health Project in Ukraine. Employing program evaluation methods, we find that the administrative units participating in the Project have exhibited greater improvements in both maternal and infant health compared to the control ones. Among the infant health characteristics, the MIHP impact is most pronounced for infant mortality resulting from deviations in perinatal period. As for the maternal health, the MIHP is the most effective at combating anemia, blood circulation and urinary-genital system complications, and late toxicosis. The analysis suggests that the effects are due to early attendance of antenatal clinics, lower share of C-sections, and greater share of normal deliveries. Preliminary cost-effectiveness analysis shows enormous benefit per dollar spent on the project: the cost to benefit ratio is one to 97 taking into account both maternal and infant lives saved as well as cost savings due to the changes in labor and delivery practices. (c) 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.