Exploring Reproductive Health Among Women in Somaliland

A composite of admission to neonatal intensive care unit, mode of birth (vaginal birth, assisted vaginal birth, and cesarean section), postpartum hemorrhage > 1000 ml, eclampsia, maternal death, stillbirth in 3rd trimester, neonatal death within one and seven days, preterm birth < week 37, and low birth weight < 2000 grams.

Proportion of women receiving four or more visits.

Hypertension include all women with a blood pressure > 90 diastolic or >140 systolic. Pre-eclampsia is defined as women with a blood pressure > 90 diastolic or > 140 systolic cooccurring with proteinuria. 'Pre-eclampsia with severe features' is defined as pre-eclampsia with description of at least one of the following symptoms severe headache, swelling of the face, upper abdominal pain or oliguria (less that a table spoon).

Fasting blood glucose level >92 mg/dL (5.1 mmol/L)

Using Edingburgh Postpartum Depression Scale including a 4 point likert scale with higher values indicating signs of depression.

Assessed using the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) tool, which contains 12 items rated on a 7-point Likert scale (1 = very strongly disagree, 7 = very strongly agree). Based on the mean item scores, the following categories will be used: low support (<3), moderate support (3-5) and high support (>5).

Using the Appraisal of Self-care Agency Scale Revised (ASAS-R) score, which is a 15-item scale that appraises the enabling traits of self-care agency, and uses a Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree), with total scores ranging from 15 to 75, with higher scores indicating greater self-care agency.

Distinguishes between decisions made by the women and other people. Each decision-maker category (e.g., the woman herself, husband/partner, parents, in-laws, grandmother, friends) will be coded as 1 = involved and 0 = not involved and will be summed to create a variable representing the total number of people involved. The variable will initially be treated as a continuous to assess potential relationships between increasing involvement and the likelihood of severe maternal outcomes. If the distribution is skewed or non-linear, categories will be created (e.g., low involvement (1-2 people) vs. high involvement (≥3 people)).

Yes / no

Yes / no

Yes / no