Véronique Filippi
Biographic Data
| ID | 370421 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Véronique Filippi |
| GIVEN NAMES | Véronique |
| FAMILY NAME | Filippi |
| SIGNATURE | FILIPPI V |
| AFFILIATIONS | London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1331-3391 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 34 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 122 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 34 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1992 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Strengthening Teamwork and Respect (STAR)
BACKGROUND: Disrespectful maternal care has been reported from women's perspectives, but less is known about how health workers understand these behaviours. To develop interventions, it is important to explore the drivers of disrespectful care from providers' perspectives. OBJECTIVE: To explore nurses' perspectives on disrespectful maternal care. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 nurses in maternity units in nine rural di…
Voices from the neonatal unit
Neonatal care increasingly emphasizes improving the experience of care by engaging mothers as active partners alongside health workers providing clinical care for newborns. Guided by the World Health Organization's Standards for improving the quality of care for small and sick newborns, this study focuses on Standard 4, which promotes care that is respectful, responsive, and supportive of families' needs and preferences. We conducted a concurrent…
“Now that the baby is out, I can be vaccinated”
COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective in pregnancy, but vaccine hesitancy limits uptake and effectiveness. This study explored COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in pregnancy in Kilifi, coastal Kenya, to elicit reasons for vaccine hesitancy and acceptance, and to compile misconceptions around vaccination in pregnancy. Twenty-three in-depth interviews were conducted with pregnant women, mothers who had given birth in the previous 2 years and health wor…
The re-emergence of a data desert for maternal survival is a serious risk amid global health funding cuts
box Severe disruptions to global health financing threaten maternal health progress by destabilising fragile health systems and reversing gains in survival
Coping with extreme heat in primary maternity care
Highlights: •Health workers deliver maternity care in conditions of extreme, escalating heat. •First empirical qualitative study in Africa to examine how staff navigate extreme heat in maternity wards. •First qualitative ethnography globally to apply Adaptive Thermal Comfort Theory to clinical labour. •Heat adaptation emerges as a collective, resource-dependent, institutional and material process. •Protecting frontline staff from extreme heat is …
Pregnancy, birth, and postpartum under heat strain
Extreme heat, intensified by climate change, is an escalating global health threat linked to preterm birth, stillbirth, hypertensive disorders, and low birth weight. Yet little is known about how pregnant and postpartum women in low-resource settings experience and adapt to heat as a lived condition. In sub-Saharan Africa, where livelihoods depend on outdoor labour and health systems remain fragile, women's thermal vulnerability is compounded by …
Strengthening teamwork and respect (STAR) in maternity units
Disrespect and abuse in maternity services in South Africa has been described over several decades and are rooted in the country's complex socio-political landscape and unequal health system which places strain on public sector health professionals. Strategies to improve the quality of health care typically involve once-off didactic teaching or outside technical consultants focused on improving specific health programmes. These approaches fail to…
Paternity leave, mental health and wellbeing for new parents
Paternity leave has the potential to help parents by enabling new fathers to spend time with their families. However, existing evidence about its association with parental mental health and wellbeing is mixed. This study used data from Understanding Society, a national UK household survey, to examine uptake of paternity leave and its association with measures of mental health and wellbeing for fathers (n = 1385) and mothers (n = 1384) of infants …
Identifying women with poor experience of post-abortion care
High quality post-abortion care (PAC) is essential to reducing abortion-related morbidity and mortality. However, the experience of receiving PAC, a key component of care quality, remains understudied in humanitarian settings. We assessed the experience of PAC in two hospitals supported by an international organization in Jigawa State (Nigeria) and Bangui (Central African Republic, CAR) and identified characteristics associated with poor experien…
Reducing extreme heat impacts on health in pregnant women and infants
High ambient temperatures affect maternal and newborn health outcomes and wellbeing. The Climate Heat and Maternal and Neonatal Health in Africa (CHAMNHA) consortium conducted formative qualitative research in rural Kilifi, Kenya, to examine perceptions of heat risks among women, household members, and community stakeholders. An intervention was co-designed together with community members. This paper presents the development, implementation, and …
Intervention co-design to reduce the impact of heat exposure on pregnant and postpartum women and newborns in Burkina Faso
Interventions are needed to reduce the impact of heat on the health and wellbeing of women and newborns in Burkina Faso where seasonal temperatures can be extremely high. In this article, we share our experience and lessons learned from co-designing an intervention to improve maternal and neonatal health, about heat in a rural and an urban district of Burkina Faso. We performed community engagement and a series of workshops with 49 community memb…
Postpartum recovery after severe maternal morbidity in Kilifi, Kenya
INTRODUCTION: The burden of severe maternal morbidity is highest in sub-Saharan Africa, and its relative contribution to maternal (ill) health may increase as maternal mortality continues to fall. Women's perspective of their long-term recovery following severe morbidity beyond the standard 42-day postpartum period remains largely unexplored. METHODS: This woman-centred, grounded theory study was nested within the Pregnancy Care Integrating Trans…
Extreme heat, pregnancy and women’s well-being in Burkina Faso
Climate change is an increasing threat to the health of populations in Africa, with a shift in seasonal temperatures towards more extreme heat exposures. In Burkina Faso, like other countries in the Sahel, many women have little protection against exposure to high temperatures, either outside or inside the home or place of work. This paper investigates how women perceive the impacts of heat on their physical and mental health, in addition to thei…
Climate change, air pollution and maternal and newborn health
Background: Climate change represents a fundamental threat to human health, with pregnant women and newborns being more susceptible than other populations. In this review, we aimed to describe the current landscape of available epidemiological evidence on key climate risks on maternal and newborn health (MNH). Methods: We sought to identify published systematic and scoping reviews investigating the impact of different climate hazards and air poll…
Identifying Profiles of Support for Legal Abortion Services in Zambia
Relative to neighboring countries, Zambia has among the most progressive abortion policies, but numerous sociopolitical constraints inhibit knowledge of pregnancy termination rights and access to safe abortion services. Multistage cluster sampling was used to randomly select 1,486 women aged 15–44 years from households in three provinces. We used latent class analysis (LCA) to partition women into discrete groups based on patterns of endorsed sup…
Process and outputs from a community codesign workshop on reducing impact of heat exposure on pregnant and postpartum women and newborns in Kilifi, Kenya
Background: Ambient heat exposure is increasing due to climate change and is known to affect the health of pregnant and postpartum women, and their newborns. Evidence for the effectiveness of interventions to prevent heat health outcomes in east Africa is limited. Codesigning and integrating local-indigenous and conventional knowledge is essential to develop effective adaptation to climate change. Methods: Following qualitative research on heat i…
"Mothers get really exhausted!" The lived experience of pregnancy in extreme heat
Heat exposure in pregnancy is associated with a range of adverse health and wellbeing outcomes, yet research on the lived experience of pregnancy in high temperatures is lacking. We conducted qualitative research in 2021 in two communities in rural Kilifi County, Kenya, a tropical savannah area currently experiencing severe drought. Pregnant and postpartum women, their male spouses and mothers-in-law, community health volunteers, and local health…
Understanding abortion-related complications in health facilities
INTRODUCTION: Complications due to unsafe abortions are an important cause of morbidity and mortality in many sub-Saharan African countries. We aimed to characterise abortion-related complication severity, describe their management, and to report women's experience of abortion care in Africa. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was implemented in 210 health facilities across 11 sub-Saharan African countries. Data were collected on women's characteri…
Abortion metrics
Consensus is lacking on the most appropriate indicators to document progress in safe abortion at programmatic and country level. We conducted a scoping review to provide an extensive summary of abortion indicators used over 10 years (2008–2018) to inform the debate on how progress in the provision and access to abortion care can be best captured. Documents were identified in PubMed and Popline and supplemented by materials identified on major non…
Protecting hard-won gains for mothers and newborns in low-income and middle-income countries in the face of Covid-19
The adverse impact of COVID-19 on maternal and newborn services in low-income and middle-income countries risks undermining improvements in health outcomes and care achieved over the last three decades. Alarming declines in the use of services and in the quality of care in health facilities are being reported from sources on the ground, captured rapidly and in real time using e-communication tools. Local solutions to the direct and indirect chall…
Cost and impact of policies to remove and reduce fees for obstetric care in Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali and Morocco
We conclude that the policies were effective in meeting financial protection goals and probably health and equity goals, at sustainable cost, but that a range of measures could increase their effectiveness and equity. These include broadening the exempted package (especially for those countries which focused on caesarean sections alone), better calibrated payments, clearer information on policies, better stewardship of the local health system to …
The costs of 'free
Validity and Reliability of Postpartum Morbidity Questionnaires in Benin
Difficulties leaving home
Beyond body counts
Averting women's pregnancy-related death is today recognised as an international health and development priority. Maternal survival is, in this sense, a success story. There is, however, little research into what happens to the women who survive the severe obstetric complications that are the main causes of maternal mortality. This paper examines findings from repeated in-depth interviews with 64 women who survived a clinically defined 'near-miss…
Pierre Bourdieu and transformative agency
This paper explores the social and institutional processes that constrain and enable obstetric patients in Benin to critically evaluate quality of healthcare and to stimulate positive changes in the health system. Based on qualitative data collected as part of a hospital auditing system, the paper analyses semi-structured patient feedback interviews and their function as a primary mechanism through which critical patient evaluation can develop co…
Investigating Induced Abortion in Developing Countries
Interest in abortion research is reemerging, partly as a result of political changes and partly due to evidence of the contribution of induced abortion to maternal mortality in developing countries. Information is lacking on all aspects of induced abortion, particularly methodological issues. This article reviews the methodological dilemmas encountered in previous studies, which provide useful lessons for future research on induced abortion and i…
Beyond body counts
Averting women's pregnancy-related death is today recognised as an international health and development priority. Maternal survival is, in this sense, a success story. There is, however, little research into what happens to the women who survive the severe obstetric complications that are the main causes of maternal mortality. This paper examines findings from repeated in-depth interviews with 64 women who survived a clinically defined 'near-miss…
Paying the price
Contraceptive Choice and Reproductive Morbidity in Istanbul
A cross-sectional survey was conducted in Istanbul to investigate the relationship between contraceptive choice and reproductive morbidity. Altogether, 918 women who had ever used any means of avoiding pregnancy were interviewed at home, and, among these, 694 parous nonpregnant women were examined by three female physicians. The women were aware of bearing a considerable burden of ill health, with 81 percent reporting at least one episode of illn…
Women's Reports of Severe (Near‐miss) Obstetric Complications in Benin
This study examines the validity of a survey instrument on near‐miss obstetric complications. Three groups of women–with severe complications, with mild complications, and with a normal delivery–were identified retrospectively in three hospitals in South Benin and interviewed at home. The concept of “near‐miss” was used to identify women with severe episodes of morbidity. The questionnaire was able to detect, with some accuracy, eclamptic fits, a…
Giving birth in maternity hospitals in Benin
In Benin, a Francophone country in West Africa, maternity mortality has been estimated at between 473 and 990 deaths per 100,000 live births. Yet 92 per cent of women gave birth in either a public or private health centre, and almost all of them received antenatal care. This paper reports on an exploratory, qualitative study in 1995, among 19 women aged 20-40 who had recently given birth in a referral hospital, of their experiences of antenatal a…
Demonstrating programme impact on maternal mortality
Reducing maternal mortality if one of the primary goals of safe mother hood programmes in developing countries. Maternal mortality is not, however, a feasible outcome indicator with which to judge the success of these programmes. This is due to an unfortunate combination of obstacles to measurement--some general to assessing the mortality impact of health programmes and some peculiar to estimating maternal mortality. There is a need to promote al…
The costs of 'free
Difficulties leaving home
"Mothers get really exhausted!" The lived experience of pregnancy in extreme heat
Heat exposure in pregnancy is associated with a range of adverse health and wellbeing outcomes, yet research on the lived experience of pregnancy in high temperatures is lacking. We conducted qualitative research in 2021 in two communities in rural Kilifi County, Kenya, a tropical savannah area currently experiencing severe drought. Pregnant and postpartum women, their male spouses and mothers-in-law, community health volunteers, and local health…
Investigating Induced Abortion in Developing Countries
Interest in abortion research is reemerging, partly as a result of political changes and partly due to evidence of the contribution of induced abortion to maternal mortality in developing countries. Information is lacking on all aspects of induced abortion, particularly methodological issues. This article reviews the methodological dilemmas encountered in previous studies, which provide useful lessons for future research on induced abortion and i…
Demonstrating programme impact on maternal mortality
Reducing maternal mortality if one of the primary goals of safe mother hood programmes in developing countries. Maternal mortality is not, however, a feasible outcome indicator with which to judge the success of these programmes. This is due to an unfortunate combination of obstacles to measurement--some general to assessing the mortality impact of health programmes and some peculiar to estimating maternal mortality. There is a need to promote al…
Contraceptive Choice and Reproductive Morbidity in Istanbul
A cross-sectional survey was conducted in Istanbul to investigate the relationship between contraceptive choice and reproductive morbidity. Altogether, 918 women who had ever used any means of avoiding pregnancy were interviewed at home, and, among these, 694 parous nonpregnant women were examined by three female physicians. The women were aware of bearing a considerable burden of ill health, with 81 percent reporting at least one episode of illn…
Women's Reports of Severe (Near‐miss) Obstetric Complications in Benin
This study examines the validity of a survey instrument on near‐miss obstetric complications. Three groups of women–with severe complications, with mild complications, and with a normal delivery–were identified retrospectively in three hospitals in South Benin and interviewed at home. The concept of “near‐miss” was used to identify women with severe episodes of morbidity. The questionnaire was able to detect, with some accuracy, eclamptic fits, a…
Giving birth in maternity hospitals in Benin
In Benin, a Francophone country in West Africa, maternity mortality has been estimated at between 473 and 990 deaths per 100,000 live births. Yet 92 per cent of women gave birth in either a public or private health centre, and almost all of them received antenatal care. This paper reports on an exploratory, qualitative study in 1995, among 19 women aged 20-40 who had recently given birth in a referral hospital, of their experiences of antenatal a…
Obstetric audit in resource-poor settings
This paper outlines the practical steps involved in setting up and running multi-professional, in-depth case reviews of 'near miss' obstetrical complications. It draws on lessons learned in 12 referral hospitals in Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana and Morocco. A range of feasibility indicators are presented which measured the implementation and frequency of audit activities, the quality of participation, adherence to the planned protocol for the near-…
Maternal health in poor countries
Paying the price
Pierre Bourdieu and transformative agency
This paper explores the social and institutional processes that constrain and enable obstetric patients in Benin to critically evaluate quality of healthcare and to stimulate positive changes in the health system. Based on qualitative data collected as part of a hospital auditing system, the paper analyses semi-structured patient feedback interviews and their function as a primary mechanism through which critical patient evaluation can develop co…
Beyond body counts
Averting women's pregnancy-related death is today recognised as an international health and development priority. Maternal survival is, in this sense, a success story. There is, however, little research into what happens to the women who survive the severe obstetric complications that are the main causes of maternal mortality. This paper examines findings from repeated in-depth interviews with 64 women who survived a clinically defined 'near-miss…
Validity and Reliability of Postpartum Morbidity Questionnaires in Benin
Difficulties leaving home
Cost and impact of policies to remove and reduce fees for obstetric care in Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali and Morocco
We conclude that the policies were effective in meeting financial protection goals and probably health and equity goals, at sustainable cost, but that a range of measures could increase their effectiveness and equity. These include broadening the exempted package (especially for those countries which focused on caesarean sections alone), better calibrated payments, clearer information on policies, better stewardship of the local health system to …
The costs of 'free
Protecting hard-won gains for mothers and newborns in low-income and middle-income countries in the face of Covid-19
The adverse impact of COVID-19 on maternal and newborn services in low-income and middle-income countries risks undermining improvements in health outcomes and care achieved over the last three decades. Alarming declines in the use of services and in the quality of care in health facilities are being reported from sources on the ground, captured rapidly and in real time using e-communication tools. Local solutions to the direct and indirect chall…
Understanding abortion-related complications in health facilities
INTRODUCTION: Complications due to unsafe abortions are an important cause of morbidity and mortality in many sub-Saharan African countries. We aimed to characterise abortion-related complication severity, describe their management, and to report women's experience of abortion care in Africa. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was implemented in 210 health facilities across 11 sub-Saharan African countries. Data were collected on women's characteri…
Abortion metrics
Consensus is lacking on the most appropriate indicators to document progress in safe abortion at programmatic and country level. We conducted a scoping review to provide an extensive summary of abortion indicators used over 10 years (2008–2018) to inform the debate on how progress in the provision and access to abortion care can be best captured. Documents were identified in PubMed and Popline and supplemented by materials identified on major non…
Process and outputs from a community codesign workshop on reducing impact of heat exposure on pregnant and postpartum women and newborns in Kilifi, Kenya
Background: Ambient heat exposure is increasing due to climate change and is known to affect the health of pregnant and postpartum women, and their newborns. Evidence for the effectiveness of interventions to prevent heat health outcomes in east Africa is limited. Codesigning and integrating local-indigenous and conventional knowledge is essential to develop effective adaptation to climate change. Methods: Following qualitative research on heat i…
"Mothers get really exhausted!" The lived experience of pregnancy in extreme heat
Heat exposure in pregnancy is associated with a range of adverse health and wellbeing outcomes, yet research on the lived experience of pregnancy in high temperatures is lacking. We conducted qualitative research in 2021 in two communities in rural Kilifi County, Kenya, a tropical savannah area currently experiencing severe drought. Pregnant and postpartum women, their male spouses and mothers-in-law, community health volunteers, and local health…
Postpartum recovery after severe maternal morbidity in Kilifi, Kenya
INTRODUCTION: The burden of severe maternal morbidity is highest in sub-Saharan Africa, and its relative contribution to maternal (ill) health may increase as maternal mortality continues to fall. Women's perspective of their long-term recovery following severe morbidity beyond the standard 42-day postpartum period remains largely unexplored. METHODS: This woman-centred, grounded theory study was nested within the Pregnancy Care Integrating Trans…
Extreme heat, pregnancy and women’s well-being in Burkina Faso
Climate change is an increasing threat to the health of populations in Africa, with a shift in seasonal temperatures towards more extreme heat exposures. In Burkina Faso, like other countries in the Sahel, many women have little protection against exposure to high temperatures, either outside or inside the home or place of work. This paper investigates how women perceive the impacts of heat on their physical and mental health, in addition to thei…
Climate change, air pollution and maternal and newborn health
Background: Climate change represents a fundamental threat to human health, with pregnant women and newborns being more susceptible than other populations. In this review, we aimed to describe the current landscape of available epidemiological evidence on key climate risks on maternal and newborn health (MNH). Methods: We sought to identify published systematic and scoping reviews investigating the impact of different climate hazards and air poll…
Identifying Profiles of Support for Legal Abortion Services in Zambia
Relative to neighboring countries, Zambia has among the most progressive abortion policies, but numerous sociopolitical constraints inhibit knowledge of pregnancy termination rights and access to safe abortion services. Multistage cluster sampling was used to randomly select 1,486 women aged 15–44 years from households in three provinces. We used latent class analysis (LCA) to partition women into discrete groups based on patterns of endorsed sup…
Strengthening teamwork and respect (STAR) in maternity units
Disrespect and abuse in maternity services in South Africa has been described over several decades and are rooted in the country's complex socio-political landscape and unequal health system which places strain on public sector health professionals. Strategies to improve the quality of health care typically involve once-off didactic teaching or outside technical consultants focused on improving specific health programmes. These approaches fail to…
Paternity leave, mental health and wellbeing for new parents
Paternity leave has the potential to help parents by enabling new fathers to spend time with their families. However, existing evidence about its association with parental mental health and wellbeing is mixed. This study used data from Understanding Society, a national UK household survey, to examine uptake of paternity leave and its association with measures of mental health and wellbeing for fathers (n = 1385) and mothers (n = 1384) of infants …
Global Maternal and Child Health (26 works) · Medicine (25 works) · Environmental health (20 works) · Pregnancy (15 works) · Health care (14 works) · Population (14 works) · Economic growth (11 works) · Nursing (11 works) · Economics (10 works) · Psychology (10 works)