1. Brief Statement

The Kenyan Government introduced free maternity services in 2013 in order to increase accessibility to maternal and newborn care. This increased the number of clients attended to in the health facility. However, increased use of maternal service is likely to have a negative effect on the quality of care that is being provided. This would be counterproductive in trying to reduce maternal mortality ratio which was the target of the free maternity services.

To guard against this, there is need then to ensure that quality of care is guarded through the use of World Health Organization “Standards for improving Maternal and anew-born care in Health facilities”

2. The Objectives of the Study:

Broad objective:

To evaluate the effectiveness of selected Maternal Health care standards in improving the quality of maternal Health care in Embu and Meru Teaching and Referral Hospitals.

Specific objectives:

Phase one:

1. To assess the knowledge and attitude of midwives on maternal health care standards
2. To determine the extent to which the nurses/midwives are implementing maternal health standards in their practice
3. To identify barriers hindering the use of maternal health care standards among nurses/midwives

Phase 2:

1. To adapt training materials and evaluation tools on maternal health care standards and guidelines
2. To train nurses/midwives on maternal health care standards

Phase 3:

1. To assess the influence of training on the nurses/midwives’ knowledge, attitude and use of maternal health care standards