“Maternal Health Initiative is Shutting Down” by Ben Williamson, Sarah Eustis-Guthrie

Maternal Health Initiative (MHI) was founded out of Charity Entrepreneurship (AIM)'s 2022 Incubation Program and has since piloted two interventions integrating postpartum (post-birth) contraceptive counselling into routine care appointments in Ghana. We concluded this pilot work in December 2023. A stronger understanding of the context and impact of postpartum family planning work, on the back of our pilot results, has led us to conclude that our intervention is not among the most cost-effective interventions available. We’ve therefore decided to shut down and redirect our funding to other organisations. This article summarises MHI's work, our assessment of the value of postpartum family planning programming, and our decision to shut down MHI as an organisation in light of our results. We also share some lessons learned. An in-depth report expanding on the same themes is available on our website. We encourage you to skip to the sections that are [...] ---Outline:(01:40) Why we chose to pursue postpartum family planning(01:45) Why family planning?(02:28) Why postpartum (post-birth)?(03:49) MHI: An overview of our work(06:16) Pilot: Design(08:54) Pilot: Results(08:58) Sample Population(09:36) Implementation(10:19) Changes in Contraceptive Uptake(11:13) Conclusions From Our Pilot Results(13:13) Why We No Longer Believe Postpartum Family Planning Is Among The Most Cost-Effective Interventions(13:35) Evidence of Limited Effects on Unintended Pregnancies(16:06) The Prevalence and Impact of Postpartum Insusceptibility(17:07) Short-Spaced Pregnancies(17:48) Theory of Change(18:14) Other Factors(18:28) Broader Thoughts on Family Planning(18:45) Concerns(20:43) Reasons We Still Believe In The Importance Of Family Planning Work(22:53) Choosing to Shut Down(23:43) Considering a Pivot(26:47) Proceeding to Shut Down(27:38) Lessons(33:39) Conclusions--- First published: March 15th, 2024 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/MWSwSXNmsSBaEKtKw/maternal-health-initiative-is-shutting-down --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.