Is there any relationship between antenatal care and place of delivery? Findings from rural northern Ghana.

SUMMARY Background: Although antenatal visits have increased over the years, deliveries at health facilities have not increased substantially. Maternal mortality is also quite high. The purpose of the paper is to examine the relationship between antenatal care and place of delivery in northern Ghana where antenatal care clinic attendance is high but delivery at a health facility is very low. Methods: Data came from the 2002 panel survey conducted by the Navrongo Health Research Centre. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was employed. Results: Results showed that 71% of women delivered at home, 25% at a hospital/clinic, 4% at a health centre, and less than 1% delivered at “another place.” Relative to women who were seen by a doctor, being seen by a clinic nurse or midwife was associated with delivering at home. Similarly, being seen by a community nurse was associated with elevated odds of delivering at home. Even higher odds of home delivery are associated with being seen by a traditional birth attendant. Having no access to antenatal care increased the odds of delivering at home by 27 times. As the number of antenatal visits increased, the chances of delivering at home were highly reduced. Conclusion: These findings stress the need to encourage women to attend antenatal clinics since this has the potential to motivate women to deliver at a healthy facility.