Factors Influencing the utilisation of Skilled Birth Attendants (SBA) among Women of Childbearing Age in healthcare facilities in the rural communities of Akpabuyo Local Government Areas of Cross River State, Nigeria

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Uka,Victoria, Nsemo, Alberta David, Ojong, Idang Neji

Abstract

Skilled birth attendance during delivery is a crucial factor in reducing maternal and newborn morbidity and mortality. This study investigated the factors influencing utilisation of Skilled Birth Attendants (SBA) among women of childbearing age in healthcare facilities in the rural communities of Akpabuyo Local Government Area of Cross River State, Nigeria. The need for this study arose because women attend antenatal care during pregnancy but do not come to the facility to deliver. They were only seen when complications arise. Cross sectional descriptive design was adopted for the study. A multi-staged sampling was used to select a total population of 208 respondents who attended antenatal and child welfare clinic at the time of this study, with the return rate of (207) 99.52% The Cronbach’s alpha was used to ascertain the reliability of the instrument and the reliability coefficient was 0.8. Data analysis was done using frequency counts, simple percentages and logistic regression. The study findings revealed that those who utilized SBA were 80.7% and only 19.3% demonstrated low utilisation, hence, a high proportion women of reproductive age utilise SBA in Akpabuyo. The findings also revealed that economic factors such as poverty and husband unemployment (95.1%) influence the utilisation of SBA. Similarly, most participants (66.1%) disagreed that utilisation of SBA is not against their cultural belief while 33.9% agreed that using SBA is against their cultural belief such as use of herbs, husband approval and other traditional practices. Test of the hypothesis also revealed that the proportion of utilisation of SBA is not statistically significant related to economic and cultural factors among women of childbearing age in Akpabuyo LGA. It was recommended that deliberate programs should be put in place to encourage male involvement in reproductive health services in order to encourage and support their spouses financially to utilise the services of SBA. 

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