Maternity Waiting Homes (MWH): Bridging the ‘Geographical Gap’ in Obstetric Care for Pregnant Women in Rural Areas of Sokoto State, North West Nigeria

Abstract

Introduction

Maternity waiting homes (MWH) are residential facilities, located near a medical facility, where pregnant women can await their delivery and be transferred to a nearby medical facility shortly before delivery, or earlier should complications arise. This is a key element of a strategy to “bridge the geographical gap” in skilled delivery services between rural areas, with poor access to obstetric facilities, and the cities where the services are available. 

Methodology

This is a cross-sectional study of data generated between January to December, 2022 from all the 5 MWHs in Sokoto State. The data was entered onto Microsoft Excell sheet, cleaned, and generated descriptive statistics. 

Results

A total of 1,183 pregnant women received care across the five MWHs throughout the twelve months of the year 2022 with a monthly attendance range of 62 in March to 133 in August.  Their age ranged from 14 to 56 years with the commonest age group being 25 to 29 years. They stayed in the waiting homes from between 1 to 14 days of which the commonest stay period was 2 days. The commonest services received by the pregnant women in the MWHs were ANC (1157, 98%), normal delivery (1065, 90%), family planning (514, 43%), and assisted delivery (3, 0.3%). Although one perinatal death was recorded, there was no maternal deaths in all the MWHs during the reporting period.

Conclusion

MWH proved to be a tool to enhance ANC attendance, hospital delivery, and reduce maternal and perinatal death in Sokoto State.