A 2014 baseline survey in MNCH2 intervention sites found that the majority of women did not consider it necessary to give birth in a health facility. The main reasons given were distance to facilities and the expense associated with emergency transportation.
A number of previous donor-funded programmes have tried to address these challenges by piloting Emergency Transport Schemes (ETS) to ensure that women had access to dependable free transportation to health facilities in times of emergency – especially during labour and where there were pregnancy complications.