Influence of Free Maternal Services on Supervised Delivery in the Kadjebi District of the Volta Region

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Increasing the proportion of birth supervised by skilled birth attendants is an internationally agreed objective. However, available data indicate that little progress has been made in Ghana and the Sub-Saharan Africa. Though there is over 80% coverage of antenatal attendance in Ghana, there is a pervasive maternal services utilization that would result in an increase in skilled supervised delivery. Yet, there may be some mediating factors that are poorly understood. OBJECTIVE: The main purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which the free maternal services have influenced skilled supervised delivery in the Kadjebi district of the Volta Region. STUDY DESIGN: The study was a quantitative type involving a cross sectional survey where questionnaires were used to elicit responses from the respondents. METHODS; A total of 250 people constituted the respondents. This included 50 health providers and 200 women between the ages of 15-49 and who gave birth between (2011- 2012) and are residence of the district. Four out of ten health facilities were purposively selected for the study. RESULTS: The result revealed that out of the 200 women who were sampled for the study, 175(87.5%) of them delivered at a health facility while 25(12.5%) delivered at home. The use of health facility for delivery supervised by skilled birth attendants rate was very high (87%), with regards to age, education and occupation showing significant relationships. On the whole, deliveries supervised by skilled attendants have increased tremendously in the district. The findings showed that, majority of the women were very satisfied with the kind of services received during antenatal visits, deliveries at the labor ward and postnatal clinics. The results also suggested that, there are inadequate number of midwives and nurses to handle all the maternity cases in the district; this is represented by 72% of the total respondents. CONCLUSIONS: To some large extent the free maternal services have positively influenced women decisions regarding seeking deliveries supervised by skilled birth attendants in the district. Meanwhile the supply of resources would greatly improve the quality of service delivery.