Abstract:
Adequate provision and utilization of SMP is vital to the reduction of maternal mortality. Safe motherhood programme (SMP) was introduced to help prolong lives of mothers. The purpose of the study was to determine the provision and utilization of SMP in Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu State. In order to achieve this purpose, twelve research objectives with twelve corresponding research questions and four null hypotheses guided the study. The cross-sectional research design was used for the study. Population for the study comprised 794 health workers and 87518 childbearing mothers (CBMs). A sample of 265 was drawn from health workers and 400 from CBMs using Taro Yamane sample formula. Two researcher’s designed questionnaire known as provision of safe motherhood programme c (PSMPQ) and utilization of safe motherhood questionnaire (USMPQ) were the questionnaire utilized for collection of data. Validity and reliability of the instruments were established. Frequencies and percentages were used to answer research questions while hypothesis 1, 2 and 4 were tested using Krustkal-Wallis and hypothesis 3 was tested using Mann-Whitney Test at 0.05 level of significance. Out of 265 copies of PSMPQ distributed, 263 were used for analysis and out of 400 CBMs copies distributed 393 were used for analysis. The SPSS version 20 was employed for data analysis. The results of the study indicated that; there was provision of antenatal services (94.3%) for CBMs and provision of safe delivery services (86.7%) for CBMs, provision of emergency obstetric services (76.7%) for CBMs and provision of family planning services for CBMs. There was a very low utilization of antenatal services (3.3%) safe delivery services (10.3%) and a low utilization emergency obstetrics (31.6%) and family planning services (31.0%) among CBMs. There was significance difference in utilization of SMP among CBMs across different age groups (χ2 = 43.328, df = 3, p = .0005 < 0.05) and occupation (χ2 = 12.910, df = 3, p = < -0.0005 < 0.05). The result further indicated that there was no significance difference in utilization of SMP among CBMs across different levels of education (χ2 = 2.859, df = 3, P = .414 > 0.05) and location (Md = 3.00, U = 9106.50, Z = 1.184, P =.24> 0.05) from the findings of the study, the researcher recommended that ministry of health and education should collaborate in carrying out campaign to increase utilization of SMP among CBMs, SMP should be included in school curriculum and all the services of SMP made free in private and public health facilities.
