Are women and providers satisfied with antenatal care? Views on a standard and a simplified, evidence-based model of care in four developing countries

BACKGROUND: This study assessed women and providers' satisfaction with a new evidence-based antenatal care (ANC) model within the WHO randomized trial conducted in four developing countries. The WHO study was a randomized controlled trial that compared a new ANC model with the standard type offered in each country. The new model of ANC emphasized actions known to be effective in improving maternal or neonatal health, excluded other interventions that have not proved to be beneficial, and improved the information component, especially alerting pregnant women to potential health problems and instructing them on appropriate responses. These activities were distributed within four antenatal care visits for women that did not need any further assessment. METHODS: Satisfaction was measured through a standardized questionnaire administered to a random sample of 1,600 pregnant women and another to all antenatal care providers. RESULTS: Most women in both arms expressed satisfaction with ANC. More women in the intervention arm were satisfied with information on labor, delivery, family planning, pregnancy complications and emergency procedures. More providers in the experimental clinics were worried about visit spacing, but more satisfied with the time spent and information provided. CONCLUSIONS: Women and providers accepted the new ANC model generally. The safety of fewer visits for women without complications with longer spacing would have to be reinforced, if such a model is to be introduced into routine practice

Obstacles, Opportunities, and Red Lines in the European Union: Past and Future of the CAI in Times of (Geo)-Politicisation

The conclusion and suspension of the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) between the EU and China have been drawing substantial international academic attention over the last two years. To add to the ongoing debate, this article asks how one can best explain the conclusion and the suspension by the EU of the ratification of the CAI? And, secondly, the article focuses on the lessons which the EU can draw from the suspension of the CAI. By looking at the CAI background, negotiations and early ratification phase, the article sets out conceptually and empirically how a compartmentalisation and geo-politicisation of EU trade and investment policy contributed to the rise and fall of the CAI. Moreover, the article points to important lessons for future coherent and strategic investment policies. More specifically, it shows the need to bring together increasing investment flows with a sustained EU commitment to its very own founding values

Parties in the 'Twilight Zone':Beyond First and Second-Order Elections in the Spanish 2019 European Parliament Elections

While most research has analysed election-orderness by looking at electoral behaviour, this article looks instead at political parties and political programs in the case of the Spanish 2019 European elections. With the collapse of its two-party system and challenger parties on the rise, this paper analyses how Spanish parties addressed topics in their political programs, using content and political discourse analysis. The article argues that the traditional classification of first and second-order elections is no longer well-equipped to depict the increasingly politicised and Europeanised political parties. This finding indicates a new way of addressing topics in Spain, a 'twilight-zone', in which the division between first and second-order elections may be seen less as a binary distinction and more as part of a continuum