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      Why some women fail to give birth at health facilities: a qualitative study of women’s perceptions of perinatal care from rural Southern Malawi

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          Abstract

          Background

          Despite Malawi government’s policy to support women to deliver in health facilities with the assistance of skilled attendants, some women do not access this care.

          Objective

          The study explores the reasons why women delivered at home without skilled attendance despite receiving antenatal care at a health centre and their perceptions of perinatal care.

          Methods

          A descriptive study design with qualitative data collection and analysis methods. Data were collected through face-to-face in-depth interviews using a semi- structured interview guide that collected information on women’s perception on perinatal care. A total of 12 in- depth interviews were conducted with women that had delivered at home in the period December 2010 to March 2011. The women were asked how they perceived the care they received from health workers before, during, and after delivery. Data were manually analyzed using thematic analysis.

          Results

          Onset of labor at night, rainy season, rapid labor, socio-cultural factors and health workers’ attitudes were related to the women delivering at home. The participants were assisted in the delivery by traditional birth attendants, relatives or neighbors. Two women delivered alone. Most women went to the health facility the same day after delivery.

          Conclusions

          This study reveals beliefs about labor and delivery that need to be addressed through provision of appropriate perinatal information to raise community awareness. Even though, it is not easy to change cultural beliefs to convince women to use health facilities for deliveries. There is a need for further exploration of barriers that prevent women from accessing health care for better understanding and subsequently identification of optimal solutions with involvement of the communities themselves.

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          Most cited references38

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          Neonatal, postneonatal, childhood, and under-5 mortality for 187 countries, 1970-2010: a systematic analysis of progress towards Millennium Development Goal 4.

          Previous assessments have highlighted that less than a quarter of countries are on track to achieve Millennium Development Goal 4 (MDG 4), which calls for a two-thirds reduction in mortality in children younger than 5 years between 1990 and 2015. In view of policy initiatives and investments made since 2000, it is important to see if there is acceleration towards the MDG 4 target. We assessed levels and trends in child mortality for 187 countries from 1970 to 2010. We compiled a database of 16 174 measurements of mortality in children younger than 5 years for 187 countries from 1970 to 2009, by use of data from all available sources, including vital registration systems, summary birth histories in censuses and surveys, and complete birth histories. We used Gaussian process regression to generate estimates of the probability of death between birth and age 5 years. This is the first study that uses Gaussian process regression to estimate child mortality, and this technique has better out-of-sample predictive validity than do previous methods and captures uncertainty caused by sampling and non-sampling error across data types. Neonatal, postneonatal, and childhood mortality was estimated from mortality in children younger than 5 years by use of the 1760 measurements from vital registration systems and complete birth histories that contained specific information about neonatal and postneonatal mortality. Worldwide mortality in children younger than 5 years has dropped from 11.9 million deaths in 1990 to 7.7 million deaths in 2010, consisting of 3.1 million neonatal deaths, 2.3 million postneonatal deaths, and 2.3 million childhood deaths (deaths in children aged 1-4 years). 33.0% of deaths in children younger than 5 years occur in south Asia and 49.6% occur in sub-Saharan Africa, with less than 1% of deaths occurring in high-income countries. Across 21 regions of the world, rates of neonatal, postneonatal, and childhood mortality are declining. The global decline from 1990 to 2010 is 2.1% per year for neonatal mortality, 2.3% for postneonatal mortality, and 2.2% for childhood mortality. In 13 regions of the world, including all regions in sub-Saharan Africa, there is evidence of accelerating declines from 2000 to 2010 compared with 1990 to 2000. Within sub-Saharan Africa, rates of decline have increased by more than 1% in Angola, Botswana, Cameroon, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Swaziland, and The Gambia. Robust measurement of mortality in children younger than 5 years shows that accelerating declines are occurring in several low-income countries. These positive developments deserve attention and might need enhanced policy attention and resources. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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            Factors affecting home delivery in rural Tanzania.

            Studies of factors affecting place of delivery have rarely considered the influence of gender roles and relations within the household. This study combines an understanding of gender issues relating to health and help-seeking behaviour with epidemiological knowledge concerning place of delivery. In-depth interviews, focus group discussions and participant observation were used to explore determinants of home delivery in southern Tanzania. Quantitative data were collected in a cross-sectional survey of 21,600 randomly chosen households. Issues of risk and vulnerability, such as lack of money, lack of transport, sudden onset of labour, short labour, staff attitudes, lack of privacy, tradition and cultures and the pattern of decision-making power within the household were perceived as key determinants of the place of delivery. More than 9000 women were interviewed about their most recent delivery in the quantitative survey. There were substantial variations between ethnic groups with respect to place of delivery (P<0.0001). Women who lived in male-headed households were less likely to deliver in a health facility than women in female-headed households (RR 0.86, 95% CI 0.80-0.91). Mothers with primary and higher education were more likely to deliver at a health facility (RR 1.30, 95% CI 1.23-1.38). Younger mothers and the least poor women were also more likely to deliver in a health facility compared with the older and the poorest women, respectively. To address neonatal mortality, special attention should be paid to neonatal health in both maternal and child health programmes. The findings emphasize the need for a systematic approach to overcome health-system constraints, community based programmes and scale-up effective low-cost interventions which are already available.
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              Bypassing primary care facilities for childbirth: a population-based study in rural Tanzania.

              In an effort to reduce maternal mortality, developing countries have been investing in village-level primary care facilities to bring skilled delivery services closer to women. We explored the extent to which women in rural western Tanzania bypass their nearest primary care facilities to deliver at more distant health facilities, using a population-representative survey of households (N = 1204). Using a standardized instrument, we asked women who had a delivery within 5 years about the place of their most recent delivery. Information on all functioning health facilities in the area were obtained from the district health office. Women who delivered in a health facility that was not the nearest available facility were considered bypassers. Forty-four per cent (186/423) of women who delivered in a health facility bypassed their nearest facility. In adjusted analysis, women who bypassed were more likely than women who did not bypass to be 35 or older (OR 2.5, P
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                Author and article information

                Journal
                Reprod Health
                Reprod Health
                Reproductive Health
                BioMed Central
                1742-4755
                2013
                8 February 2013
                : 10
                : 9
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Institute of Health and Society, Department of Community Medicine, University of Oslo, Norway, P.O. Box 1130, Blindern, Oslo 0318, Norway
                [2 ]Kamuzu College of Nursing, University of Malawi, Blantyre Campus, P.O. Box 415, Blantyre, Malawi
                [3 ]Kamuzu College of Nursing, Lilongwe Campus, Private Bag 1, Lilongwe
                [4 ]International health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Tromsø, N-9037, Tromsø, Norway
                Article
                1742-4755-10-9
                10.1186/1742-4755-10-9
                3585850
                23394229
                7130923c-5298-418a-8f18-8abd6a67ad26
                Copyright ©2013 Kumbani et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

                This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

                History
                : 5 November 2012
                : 4 February 2013
                Categories
                Research

                Obstetrics & Gynecology
                community,health surveillance assistants in maternal and newborn care,lay birth attendant,perinatal period,quality of care,skilled birth attendant

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