Abstract
Globally, Nigeria is the second most unsafe country to be pregnant, with Lagos, its economic nerve center having disproportionately higher maternal deaths than the national average. Emergency obstetric care (EmOC) is effective in reducing pregnancyrelated morbidities and mortalities. This mixed-methods study quantitatively assessed women’s satisfaction with EmOC received and qualitatively engaged multiple key stakeholders to better understand issues around EmOC access, availability and utilization in Lagos. Qualitative interviews revealed that regarding access, while government opined that EmOC facilities have been strategically built across Lagos, women flagged issues with difficulty in access, compounded by perceived high EmOC cost. For availability, though health workers were judged competent, they appeared insufficient, overworked and felt poorly remunerated. Infrastructure was considered inadequate and paucity of blood and blood products remained commonplace. Although pregnant women positively rated the clinical aspects of care, as confirmed by the survey, satisfaction gaps remained in the areas of service delivery, care organization and responsiveness. These areas of discordance offer insight to opportunities for improvements, which would ensure that every woman can access and use quality EmOC that is sufficiently available.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 717 |
Pages (from-to) | 182-189 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Journal of Public Health in Africa |
Volume | 8 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Jan 2017 |
Funding
Funding: Lagos Research and Development Council (LRDC) through the Innovate Lagos project provided funding for the conduct of the research.
Funders | Funder number |
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Lagos Research and Development Council |
Keywords
- Access
- Availability
- Emergency obstetric care
- Nigeria
- Utilisation