Capacity of Health Facilities to Support Skilled Maternal Health Services in South-East Nigeria

Abstract

The capacity of health facilities to deliver skilled health services is prerequisite to service quality, improved system performance and subsequent reduction in maternal mortality. This analytical cross-sectional study was aimed at determining the capacity of health facilities in South-East Nigeria to support skilled maternal health services. Three research questions and two null hypotheses guided the study. Validated and reliable Facility Inventory Checklist was used to collect data from 33 facility heads and 162 maternal healthcare providers. The capacity score was calculated based on the mean of the domains. Comparison of services readiness across levels and between locations of health facilities was carried out using ANOVA and Mann-Whitney U tests with p-values of <0.05 considered significant. Results showed that Health facilities in South-East Nigeria had low capacity to support skilled maternal health services: mean Nurse-midwife care providers= 44.4%, mean providers’ skill acquisition = 67.3%, mean service readiness = 60.7%. Significant differences existed among the three levels of health facilities, p-value = 0.001 and between facilities in urban and rural areas, p-value = 0.041 in South-East Nigeria with regard to service readiness for maternal healthcare services. Stakeholders should increase efforts to improve capacity to provide skilled maternal healthcare and bridge the gap existing across levels of health facilities.