Factors and determinants associated with home based deliveries among women in Muteteshi area, a peri-urban of Kapiri, Zambia

Abstract

Background: In most rural areas of Zambia, over two thirds of births recorded annually, occurred at home than in health facilities. This study was aimed at determining the factors associated with home based deliveries among women at Muteteshi peri-urban locality,in Kapiri district of the country. Consequently, it was vital to ascertain whether the female’s literacy standards, age groups, husband or other reasons might influence their preference in place of delivery (pod). Study design and methodology: Structured questionnaires were used to collect data from a cross-section, involving a target sample of 120 females, aged in ranges of 16-24, 25-34 and those more than 35 years old. Data entry and analysis was done using IBM SPSS Statistics version 22. Multivariate analyses were performed to compare variable proportions on crosstabs, using the Pearson Chi-square tests. Only results yielding the p-value of less than 0.05 were considered to be of statistical significance. Results: The child deliveries associated with age groups were found significant at p-value 0.004, between home and health facility deliveries and were categorized with 68.8-31.3%, respectively, from the women age group of 25-34 n=48; 44.4-55.6%, respectively, from the women age group of 16-24 n=36 and 80.6-19.4%, respectively, from the women age group above 35 n=36. The influence from the woman’s husband on the choice of place of delivery, was significant at p –value 0.022, with only 30.8% of respondents getting an affirmative authority for using either a home or health centre delivery(51.4-48.6% n=37) while the majority of 67.5% of respondents got negative answers in using health facilities from their spouses (72.8 - 27.2% n=81. Factors associated with home deliveries were: distance, computed at 64.1%; emergency abrupt labor at 17.9% and with no reason at 17.9%.Overall, 65% of women delivered at home while only 35% delivered from health facilities. Conclusion; Home based deliveries are still very common in comparison to health centre based deliveries, among the muteteshi peri-urban community. Major factors hindering the health facility deliveries for women were the distance from health facilities and the influence of choice from their husbands.