Factors Influencing Women’s Satisfaction with Child Birth Services in the Tamale Metropolis

Abstract

In spite of several interventions put in place to encourage the patronage of facility-based child birth services in Ghana, the rate of facility-based delivery is still low (57%). Poor quality and dissatisfaction with facility-based child birth services account for the low utilisation of facility-based child birth services. In order to attain the national target of having 80% facility-based deliveries in Ghana, there is the need to provide quality child birth services that meet women’s expectation. The purpose of this study is to examine the factors that influence women’s satisfaction with child birth services in the Tamale metropolis of Ghana. A cross-sectional survey using a structured questionnaire was employed to get the responses of 385 postnatal women delivered through Spontaneous Vaginal Delivery (SVD) and Caesarean Section (CS) in postnatal wards of the study hospitals. Data were analysed by using frequencies, chi-square test of independence and logistic regression model to identify the factors that influence women’s satisfaction with child birth services. The logistic regression showed that the main factors that influenced women’s satisfaction with child birth services were: cost of child birth services (OR =1.73, p = 0.023 ), availability of a waiting area for clients and their relatives (OR=2.36, p = 0.020), assurance of privacy (OR=1.73, p = 0.042) and age of the respondents, 21-30 years (OR= 2.36, p = 0.000) and above 30 years (OR = 5.67, p =0.000 ). There is, therefore, the need to sustain the policy exempting women from direct payment for child birth services as well as improve the quality of the infrastructure in the study hospitals by providing waiting areas for clients and their relatives.