ABSTRACT
Birth place and attendants during delivery are crucial factors in reducing maternal and newborn and mortality.
This study investigated the choice of birthplace and use of birth during delivery and also the factors influencing these choices among child bearing women in Akanu, Ohafia community of Abia State.
The need for this study arose because women attend antenatal clinic during but do not come to the health to deliver their babies; they are only seen when complications arose.
Four objectives were set: To determine women’s choice of birth places in Akanu Ohafia, elicit reasons for their choice of birth places, identify women’s use of birth attendants during delivery and the factors influencing the use of birth attendants.
Cross sectional descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. Total population of 313 women who gave birth between January and December 2012 were used for the study. Data were collected using researcher developed structured questionnaire.
Data analysis was done using frequency counts and simple percentages and data presented in tables and pie chart. Mean and standard deviation were used for analysis of the demographic characteristics while Fishers exact test was employed in testing the two null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance.
The findings on choice of birthplace revealed that, hospital/health centre ranked highest with 67.6%, TBAS place 13.7%, church and spiritual homes 10.2 % and home 8.6%%. On the reasons for choice of birth place, respondents chose their places of delivery based on different reasons.
For hospital/health centre the major reasons indicated are availability of qualified staff 93.4%, convenience 88.9% and availability of services 85.8%. On choice of TBAs place their reasons were cost 93.0%, availability 93.0% and convenience 81.4%.
Reasons for using the church include availability 71.9%, labour starting at night 68.8% and charge low 62.5% while the major reason for delivering at home was that labour started at night 81.4%,
Use of birth attendants during delivery showed that Nurse Midwives 70.6% is the highest and that there is reduction in the number of deliveries taken by the TBAS 15.0% and other people compared with results from other researchers.
INTRODUCTION
The choice of birthplace and use birth attendant during delivery is very important for women and their families because it determines to a large extent the outcome of pregnancies and child births.
Access to quality healthcare during pregnancy and in particular, during delivery is a crucial factor in explaining the huge disparity in maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality between developing and the industrialized world.
(Gayawan,2012) Every year, 3.3 million babies are stillborn and maternal deaths have also continued unabated.
More than half a million women die of pregnancy related complications with ninety-nine percent (99%) of these deaths occurring in developing regions particularly Africa and Asia. (WHO 2005). The implication is that every minute, at least a woman dies from pregnancy and childbirth in these regions.
Comparing with other regions of the world, the lifetime risk of maternal deaths in sub Saharan Africa is 1 in 22 mothers. North Africa has 1 in 210, 1 in 62 for Oceania, 1 in 120 for Asia, and 1in 290 for Latin America and the Caribbean (WHO, 2005).
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) (2005), the history of success in reducing maternal death and newborn mortalities show that skilled professional care during and after childbirth can make the difference between life and death for both women and their newborn babies.
The converse is true as well; a breakdown of access to skilled care may rapidly lead to increased unfavourable outcomes. Yanagisawa, Oum and Wakai (2006), assert that obstetric complications are the leading cause of death among women of reproductive age in many developing countries.
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StudentsandScholarship Team.
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