Perceptions of use of maternal healthcare services in rural communities of Osun state

Abstract

This study determined the perceptions of the use of maternal healthcare services by women in rural communities of Osun state, Nigeria. Multistage sampling procedure was employed to select 125 respondents for the study. A well-structured and validated interview schedule was used to collect relevant data from the respondents of the study. Data collected was analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Majority (76.0%) of the respondents were within the ages of 20 and 30 years, only 4.8% had no formal education. Information sources available to most respondents were radio (69.6%) and television (67.2%). The mostly encountered constraints to the use of maternal health facilities included distance of the facilities ( =0.656), financial incapability
( =0.512) and transportation problem ( =0.456). More (52.0%) of the respondents had unfavourable perception about the use of maternal health facilities in the study area. The study established significant positive relationship (r=0.455) between knowledge of maternal health and perception of the use of the facility. The study concluded that there is need for substantial re-orientation to encourage the use of maternal health facility in order to reduce maternal mortality in the study area.