FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH CHOICE OF PLACES OF DELIVERY BY WOMEN IN THE SAVELUGU/NANTON MUNICIPALITY

Abstract

The study examined factors associated with choice of places of delivery by women in the Savelugu/Nanton Municipality. Descriptive cross sectional study design was used with simple random sampling technique to select the respondents from the study area. Structured questionnaires were administered to obtain Primary data. The study involved 250 respondents in the study area. Data was analysed quantitatively using SPSS version 20 and excel 2013. Qualitative data was analyzed manually by coding and making thematic and content analyses. The results indicated that women went to health centres, spiritual centres or remained at home to deliver. The findings from the survey revealed that those who were married were 2 times more likely to deliver at a health centre as compared to those who were not married (OR =2.0; 95% CI: 0.9– 4.2; P= 0.089). It was also revealed that poor attitude of health workers and the location of the health centres influenced women to deliver at home. Furthermore, twenty five percent respondents indicated previous successful home delivery can influence where a woman will choose to deliver the next child while seventy five percent did not believe this is so. Those who had no knowledge on social and cultural beliefs were 8 times more likely to ignore them and choose health facility as delivery place. This study recommends that health authorities should continuously monitor the health workers’ professional conduct and disciplinary procedures for staff should be instituted to improve their behaviour. Organize frequent in service training for the staff of health facilities on communication and good interpersonal relationship with their clients and endeavour to provide services that meet the expectations of these clients.