ACCESS TO HEALTH FACILITY AS A DETERMINANT OF CHOICE OF PLACE OF BIRTH AMONG WOMEN OF REPRODUCTIVE AGE IN MURANG’A COUNTY, KENYA

Abstract

Introduction: Maternal and child mortalities are among major health problems facing most of developing countries including Kenya. Most of these deaths are avoidable if women access and utilize maternity healthcare services. The aim of the study was to assess how the accessibility to health care facilities influenced choice of place of delivery among mothers seeking Child Welfare services in selected health facilities in Kandara Sub County.

Methods: The study adopted a facility-based cross-sectional survey design using an interviewer guided questionnaire. The population comprised of mothers who had delivered within 12 months prior to the study and seeking Child Welfare services at the selected health facilities in the Sub County. A purposive sampling method was used to identify the facilities which participated in the study.  The desired sample size was 352 respondents who were selected using systematic random sampling method. Descriptive statistics were used to present analyzed the data.

Results: The study found that access to health facility significantly (p value of 0.049) influence the choice of place of birth within the study area.

Conclusion and Recommendations: Accessibility to health facility had significant positive influence on the choice of place for birth. The study therefore recommends concerted effort by County government and other stakeholders interested in maternal healthcare and infrastructure development and teamwork with the department of health services to improve and increasing the accessibility of health facilities. TA broad based study covering all counties in Kenya be done to find out the determinants of choice of place of birth.