Health Facility Delivery Among Women Who Have Delivered In The Last Six Months In Kwale County-Kenya

ABSTRACT

Maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality are major public health concerns in most developing countries and in under resourced settings. Provision of safe motherhood is of utmost importance in the reduction of maternal mortality. Increasing the proportion of babies that are delivered in health facilities is an important factor in reducing the health risks to both the mother and the baby. The main objective of the study was to assess the level of health facility utilization for child delivery and the associated factors in Kwale County. This was a community based cross-sectional descriptive study. A multistage sampling technique was used to select 272 mothers who had delivered within six months from the target community. Data was collected using semi-structured questionnaire, FGD guide and an interview schedule. Statistical techniques including chi-square test, odds ratio and multiple logistic regression were employed in the analysis. All the analysis was done in SPSS version 17.0 for windows. P-value less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant. Results of the study indicates that, among the 272 mothers who participated in the study, 180(66.2%) were married and 162(59.6%) were of Islamic religion. Most of the mothers, 213(78.3%) had not completed Primary level of education. Of all the deliveries, 119(43.8%) were under skilled attendants at the health facilities. Mothers from Matuga and Kinango districts were less likely to deliver at the hospital (AOR; 95%CI: 0.078(0.013-0.487) and 0.032(0.06-0.172) respectively. Chances of delivering at the health facility increased with the increase in age and similarly those whose partners had higher level of education were more likely to deliver at the hospital.(AOR;95%CI: 0.008;0.001-0.061). In conclusion, the study revealed that utilization of skilled delivery attendance services was still low than expected with a high number of deliveries being attended by unqualified lay persons at home. There was need to strengthen the education infrastructures, implement cost effective and sustainable measures to improve the quality of maternal health services with an aim of promoting safe delivery and hence reducing maternal mortality.