Table 1.

Description of studies included in the review

Author	Publication Year	Country	Setting	Participants	Study Design	Eligibility Criteria	Intervention	Primary Outcomes
Community Mobilization
Fottrell	2013	Bangladesh	Rural	19,301 births	Cluster-RCT	Women permanently residing in the study area who had a recorded birth or pregnancy related death in the final 24 months of the intervention	Monthly peer-facilitated participatory action and learning groups where mothers discussed neonatal and maternal health problems and brainstormed ideas to address them	NMR
Hounton	2009	Burkina Faso	Rural	Intervention: 43,612 women Control: 52,126 women	Quasi-experimental	Women aged 12–49 who had been pregnant during the survey reference period	Community leaders led structured meetings with health professionals, religious leaders, and administrative officials to identify barriers to care and plan solutions	Institutional births, NMR, MMR
Lewycka	2013	Malawi	Rural	24 intervention and control clusters (Intervention: 27,361 women Control: 28,570 women)	Cluster-RCT	Women of childbearing age (10–49) that lived in the study area	Trained facilitators led community based groups to identify maternal and child health problems and solutions	MMR, PMR, NMR, IMR exclusive breastfeeding
Manandhar	2004	Nepal	Rural	Intervention clusters: 14,884 participants Control clusters: 14,047 participants	Cluster-RCT	Closed cohort of married women of reproductive age (15–49) who could become pregnant	Trained, local facilitators led women’s groups to increase knowledge and implement action for change	NMR
More	2012	Mumbai (India)	Urban (slums)	24 Intervention & control settlements 283,000 total population 18,197 births	Cluster-RCT	Women of child bearing age in intervention settlement	Series of 26 women's group sessions led by facilitator to increase knowledge develop an implement local strategies to address identified priority issues	Perinatal care, MMR, extended perinatal mortality
Mushi	2010	Tanzania	Rural	512 deliveries	Pre-post	All deliveries that occurred during the study period	Safe motherhood promoters led community groups and conduct home visits with pregnant women	Skilled birth attendance
Persson	2013	Vietnam	Rural and urban	Intervention: 44 communes Control: 46 communes	Cluster-RCT	Mother-newborn pairs in districts with NMR ≥ 15/1000	Local facilitators led monthly meetings with health workers, health center staff, and community members to prioritize perinatal health problems and solutions	NMR
Tripathy	2010	India	Rural	18 intervention and control cluster (18,775 total births)	Cluster-RCT	Women 15–49 years old who had given birth during the study period and were residing in project area	Trained, local women facilitated monthly meetings using the participatory learning and action cycle to share information, identify maternal and newborn health problems, and collectively design, implement, and evaluate strategies to address these problems	NMR, maternal depression scores
Financial Incentives
Bellows	2013	Kenya	Urban (informal settlements)	4362 women	Pre-post	The 2005/06 data set included all females aged 12–54 years old who were registered in the longitudinal NUHDSS and had a live birth or stillbirth between January 2004 and December 2005. The second data set included all females aged 12–54 who had given birth in the last 6 months	Eligible women could purchase vouchers that covered antenatal care, facility-based delivery, and postnatal care	Delivery in a health facility
De Allegri	2012	Burkina Faso	Rural	1934 women	Pre-post	Women residing in the 1050 households in Nouna Health District included in the representative sample	Women who presented for a normal facility-based delivery received an 80 % subsidy, women who presented for complicated deliveries or C-sections charged proportionally higher rates	Delivery in a health facility
Gupta	2012	India	Rural and urban	Pre: 3929 women Post: 5604 women	Pre-post	All women who delivered at the NSCB Medical College & Hospital of Jabalpur district between August 2003 and August 2007. All pregnant women were eligible to receive the JSY cash incentive if they chose to deliver in a facility	Provided antenatal and postnatal services as well as a cash incentive for mothers after they delivered in a government or accredited private health facility	Maternal mortality and maternal morbidity
Ir	2010	Cambodia	Rural	2725 women	Quasi-experimental	Pregnant women who received vouchers and had a facility-based delivery in the three districts where the program was implemented	Women received vouchers for antenatal visits, facility-based deliveries, and postnatal care as well as funds for transportation costs. Health Equity Fund schemes were also in place to promote access to health services for the poor	Proportion of facility- based deliveries
Lim	2010	India	Rural and urban	182,869 women	Quasi-experimental	Women 15–44 years old included in the DLHS survey	Women received a financial incentive after delivering in a government or accredited private health facility	Perinatal death, neonatal death, MMR
Nguyen	2012	Bangladesh	Rural and urban	16 intervention & comparison sub-districts (1104 women in each)	Quasi-experimental	Women who had delivered 6 months prior to the survey	Women received money for transport costs and vouchers for antenatal care, safe delivery care in a facility or at home, emergency care for obstetric complications, and postnatal care. After delivery with a qualified provider women also received a cash incentive and gift box	ANC visits, institutional delivery, delivery attended by a qualified provider (facility or at home), incidence of C-section, incidence of PNC check-ups with a qualified provider
Randive	2013	India	Rural and urban	284 districts (population 1.7 million)	Pre-post	Population-based national level surveys containing maternal mortality and birth data	Women received a financial incentive after delivering in a government or accredited private health facility	MMR, institutional births
Barber	2009	Mexico	Rural	Intervention: 712 births Control: 180 births	RCT	Women eligible for Oportunidades (low-income household in a marginalized community) who lived in the treatment or control communities, had a singleton live birth between 1997 and 2003, and who received and reported on ONC	Households received a cash transfer if a woman attended educational programming and completed a prescribed prenatal care plan (% ANC visits and nutritional supplements)	Overall quality of care score, quality scores within three domains (history taking and diagnostics, physical examination, and prevention)

ANC antenatal care, PNC postnatal care, RCT randomized control trial, MMR maternal mortality ratio, PMR perinatal mortality rate, NMR neonatal mortality rate, IMR infant mortality rate