Recent statistics from WHO show that the global maternal health situation is deplorable: up to 830 women died of pregnancy and childbirth-related complications every day in 2015.1 According to the report, nearly all of these deaths occurred in resource-poor settings where health systems are weak and most deaths could have been prevented.1 The WHO African Region is reported to bear the highest burden of global maternal deaths, with almost two-thirds of global maternal deaths in 2015 recorded in the region.1,2 Although the maternal mortality ratio in the WHO African Region reduced from 620 per 100 000 livebirths in 2010 to 542 per 100 000 livebirths in 2015,2 this figure is still unacceptably high. Since most causes of maternal deaths are preventable, there is an urgent need for deployment of interventions that are not only robustly informed by high-quality research evidence but also take into account the contextual requirements of low-income settings.