Abstract
BackgroundThe healthcare system in Mozambique is striving to reduce the high maternal and child mortality rates and stay on par with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 3.1). A key strategy to curb maternal and child mortality is to promote the use of professional childbirth services proven to be highly effective in averting maternal deaths. Currently, little is known about the use of childbirth services in Mozambique. The present study investigated the prevalence of professional healthcare delivery services and identified their sociodemographic correlates.MethodsThis study used cross-sectional data on 7080 women aged 15–49 years who reported having a child during the past 5 years. The data were collected from the 2011Mozambique Demographic and Health Survey. The outcome variables were the choice of childbirth services that included 1) place of delivery (respondent’s home versus health facility), and mode of delivery (caesarean section versus vaginal birth). Data were analyzed using descriptive and multivariate regression methods.ResultsThe prevalence of health facility and C-section delivery was 70.7 and 5.6%, respectively. There was a difference in the use of professional birthing services between urban and rural areas. Having better educational status and living in households of higher wealth quintiles showed a positive association with the use of facility delivery services among both urban and rural residents. Regarding ethnicity, women of Portugais [2.688,1.540,4.692], Cindau [1.876,1.423,2.474] and Xichangana [1.557,1.215,1.996] had relatively higher odds of using facility delivery services than others. Antenatal care (ANC) visits were a significant predictor of facility delivery services both in urban [OR = 1.655, 95%CI = 1.235,2.218] and rural [OR = 1.265, 95%CI = 1.108,1.445] areas. Among rural women, ANC visit was a significant predictor of C-section delivery [1.570,1.042,2.365].ConclusionMore than a quarter of the women in Mozambique were not using health facility delivery services, with the prevalence being noticeably lower in the rural areas.
Highlights
The healthcare system in Mozambique is striving to reduce the high maternal and child mortality rates and stay on par with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 3.1)
Plain English summary The Republic of Mozambique is one of the least developed countries in Southern Africa with a large portion of the population living below the poverty line
Similar to health facility delivery, the percentage of C-sections performed was markedly higher in the urban areas (10.2%) compared with rural areas (2.9%)
Summary
The healthcare system in Mozambique is striving to reduce the high maternal and child mortality rates and stay on par with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 3.1). A key strategy to curb maternal and child mortality is to promote the use of professional childbirth services proven to be highly effective in averting maternal deaths. Approximately 830 women die from pregnancy and childbirth-related complications [8]. These deaths, almost all of which take place in lowincome countries, could have been averted through the use of quality obstetric services [9, 10]. In addition to the lives lost and the emotional distress caused by maternal or neonatal bereavement [11], there is a strong human rights component to maternal child mortality (MCM) which is shaping women’s reproductive health policy making mechanisms [12, 13]
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