In 1991, an article on the Maternity Care Program in Matlab, Bangladesh, reported a substantial decline in direct obstetric deaths in the intervention area, but not in the control area. The decline was attributed primarily to the posting of midwives at the village level.

Childbirth is a normal physiological process, which can become pathological due to the adoption of certain practices and consequently affect the health and survival of the newborn.

The necessity of controlling the growth of population in Bangladesh was seriously recognized as early as 1965 when a large-scale national family planning program was initiated in erstwhile Pakistan A.