Determinants of the utilisation of skilled delivery services by pregnant women in the central region of Ghana

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the determinants of utilisation of skilled delivery service (SDS) by pregnant women at health facilities in the Central Region of Ghana. A descriptive cross-sectional design was used to conduct the study. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to sample 1100 pregnant women. Questionnaire was used to collect the data after pretesting was done and the collected data were analysed using frequencies, percentages and binary logistic regression were used to analyse the data. SPSS version 21was used to analysed the data. The results showed that majority of the pregnant women had the intention to use SDS during labour. The factors that were found to determine the use of SDS were religion, person who takes decision at delivery place, number of antenatal care (ANC) visits for the index child, place of last delivery, having experienced miscarriage in life and level of satisfaction with last delivery services. Attitude of staff, privacy, demand for items from pregnant women, mothers who needed closer attention from relatives and road network were the factors that correlate with SDS use. To improve maternal mortality, it is imperative to address the determinants of SDS use. It is recommended that future studies focus more on investigating why the Muslim minority in the Central Region are unlikely to use SDS. The Ghana Health Service (GHS) and Ministry of Health (MOH) should put measures in place to prevent midwives from illegally extorting items from pregnant women. Health care providers should adopt incessant health education and behaviour change communication strategies to increase the propensity for SDS use. Health service providers should ensure client and family-centered care to make the health facilities user friendly.