Determinants of Skilled Birth Attendance in Northern Uganda

Abstract

The aim of the study was to analyze the determinants of skilled birth attendance in Northern Uganda. This study used secondary data from the 2011 UDHS data on children (ugkrfl60) collected and complied by UBOS in 2011. The research question was answered through an interview organized and conducted by the Uganda Demographic and Health Survey using and data questionnaire as the data collection tool. The question was “Who assisted with the delivery of (NAME)?” where the respondent has to choose from the options of Doctor, Nurse/midwife, Medical/Clinical officer, Nursing aid and others. The study used a quantitative approach with a correlation descriptive design. The study was based on 1510 records about mothers of children. Mothers were interviewed about their birth experiences during the delivery of their children which provided information on the place of delivery and assistance during delivery. Data analysis was done at two levels, the univariate level and bivariate level where cross tabulations were used to generate the chi-square test. This was used to explain the relationship between independent variables which included education, wealth index, place of delivery and the dependent variable which is skilled birth attendance. Results show that the majority of the respondents had attained primary education (60.7%), were from poor families (79.7%), were Catholics (68.5%) and delivered in a non-hospital setting (51.2%). Most respondents were 18 years and above (56.6%), had partners with primary level of education (54.5%) and were involved in making decisions about own health. Results further show that there is a significant relationship between education and skilled birth attendance. Other factors like place of delivery, wealth index was also observed to have a significant relationship with skilled birth attendance. The researcher recommends that, more health centers should be set up to increase access to skilled birth attendance, family planning services across different regions, promote girl child education and improve on the general infrastructure in order to improve on emergency case response for example ambulances.