Factors Associated With The Utilization Of Skilled Delivery Services In The Ga East Municipality Of Ghana. Part 1 Demographic Characteristics

Abstract The survival and wellbeing of a mother is important in addressing the Millennium Development Goal MDG 5 which aims at improving maternal health by reducing maternal mortality. The health care that a mother receives during conception delivery and postnatal is crucial in preventing complications which lead to disability or death of the mother or child. Even with the best possible antenatal care any delivery can become complicated. Therefore skilled assistance is essential GSS 2009. In the more developed countries skilled attendance is about 99.5 whereas that of Africa is 46.5 WHO 2008 and Ghana was 59 in 2008 GSS 2012 below the WHO target of 85 in 2010 WHO 2005. The Ga East Municipality of Ghana has a skilled delivery trend of 29.8 in 2008 31.6 in 2009 and 37.5 in 2010 respectively Ga East District Annual Report 2010. Factors associated with this trend is unknown and needs to be investigated. The main objective of this study is to determine the various factors associated with utilization of skilled delivery services in the Ga East Municipality. Specifically it seeks to determine the proportion of births attended to by skilled birth attendants identify the socio- demographic characteristics associated with access to skilled delivery services and also to identify the barriers to the utilization of skilled delivery services. A cross sectional descriptive study design was used. Quantitative research methods were employed using structured pretested questionnaire. A study population of women 15- 49 years who have delivered within one year prior to the study in the Ga East Municipal area was used. Stratified sampling and simple random sampling were employed using a sample size of 394 participants. The data entry and analysis was done using the Statistical Package For Social Sciences SPSS software. Association between variables was determined using the Chi Squared Test. The findings showed that a majority of respondents 371 94.1 attended ANC. About 79 had skilled assistance at delivery with the remaining 21 delivering at home. Maternal education occupation and household income as well as religion showed statistical association with the utilization of skilled delivery. The study sort to find out what the barriers to utilization of skilled delivery and these include transportation difficulty 43 high cost of care 27.7 high cost of transport 25.3 . A few cited influence of family decisions poor attitude of health workers and poor quality care as some of the challenges. The rest were traditional cultural or religious reasons. These challenges need to be addressed to improve skilled delivery services in the district.