Factors associated with home births in a selected ward in Mberengwa District, Zimbabwe.

OBJECTIVE

Despite many efforts put by the Government to ensure that women give birth in health facilities under trained personnel supervision; statistics suggest that ward 2 in Mberengwa District in Zimbabwe has the highest home births. This study sought to assess factors that are associated with home births in ward 2 of Mberengwa District in Zimbabwe.

DESIGN

Case- control.

SETTING

Ward 2 in Mberengwa District in Zimbabwe.

PARTICIPANTS

35 and 105 women who gave birth at home and facilities, respectively.

METHODS

A piloted researcher administered questionnaire was used to collect data from systematically selected respondents on factors leading to their choice of place to give birth. The home and facility births were geocoded using a Garmin etrex-30 Global Positioning System receiver and exported to Quantum Geographic Information System software for spatial analysis and mapping.

RESULTS

Factors associated with home births were; being uneducated (2.90, CI 1.08-7.57), unemployed (2.56, CI 1.08-6.23), could not afford facility bills (20.92, 3.19-160.31), and lack of access to Ante Natal Care (23.8, 7.04-90). 69% (24) of cases and 30% (32) of resided within the 5 km radius of health facilities. There was significant difference in levels of knowledge between cases and controls about benefits of giving birth in facilities.

KEY CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE

It is acknowledged that costs are a huge barrier in accessing antenatal care services. These factors together with others need to be addressed so as to improve access by pregnant women to health facilities.