"Midwives do not appreciate pregnant women who come to the maternity with torn and dirty clothing": institutional delivery and postnatal care in Torit County, South Sudan: a mixed method study.

BACKGROUND: South Sudan has one of the highest maternal mortality ratios in the world, at 789 deaths per 100,000 live births. The majority of these deaths are due to complications during labor and delivery. Institutional delivery under the care of skilled attendants is a proven, effective intervention to avert some deaths. The aim was to determine the prevalence and explore the factors that affect utilization of health facilities for routine delivery and postnatal care in Torit County, South Sudan. METHODS: A convergent parallel mixed method design combined a community survey among women who had delivered in the previous 12 months selected through a multistage sampling technique (n = 418) with an exploratory descriptive qualitative study. Interviews (n = 19) were conducted with policymakers, staff from non-governmental organizations and health workers. Focus group discussions (n = 12) were conducted among men and women within the communities. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression were conducted to determine independent factors associated with institutional delivery. Thematic analysis was undertaken for the qualitative data. RESULTS: Of 418 participants who had delivered in the previous 12 months, 27.7% had institutional deliveries and 22.5% attended postnatal care at least once within 42 days following delivery. Four or more antenatal care visits increased institutional delivery 5 times (p < 0.001). The participants who had an institutional delivery were younger (mean age 23.3 years old) than those who had home deliveries (mean age 25.6 years). Any previous payments made for delivery in the health facility doubled the risk of home delivery (p = 0.021). Women were more likely to plan and prepare for home delivery than for institutional delivery and sought institutional delivery when complications arose. Perceived poor quality of care due to absence of health staff and lack of supplies was reported as a major barrier to institutional delivery. Women emphasized fear of discrimination based on social and economic status. Unofficial payments such as soap and sweets were reported as routine expectations and another major barrier to institutional delivery. CONCLUSION: Interventions to stop unofficial payments and discrimination based on socio-economic status and to increase access to ANC, delivery services and PNC are needed.

Estimating the met need for emergency obstetric care (EmOC) services in three payams of Torit County, South Sudan: a facility-based, retrospective cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the met need for emergency obstetric care (EmOC) services in three Payams of Torit County, South Sudan in 2015 and to determine the frequency of each major obstetric complication. DESIGN: This was a retrospective cross-sectional study. SETTING: Four primary healthcare centres (PHCCs) and one state hospital in three payams (administrative areas that form a county) in Torit County, South Sudan. PARTICIPANTS: All admissions in the obstetrics and gynaecology wards (a total of 2466 patient admission files) in 2015 in all the facilities designated to conduct deliveries in the study area were reviewed to identify obstetric complications. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary outcome was met need for EmOC, which was defined as the proportion of all women with direct major obstetric complications in 2015 treated in health facilities providing EmOC services. The frequency of each complication and the interventions for treatment were the secondary outcomes. RESULTS: Two hundred and fifty four major obstetric complications were admitted in 2015 out of 390 expected from 2602 pregnancies, representing 65.13% met need. The met need was highest (88%) for Nyong Payam, an urban area, compared with the other two rural payams, and 98.8% of the complications were treated from the hospital, while no complications were treated from three PHCCs. The most common obstetric complications were abortions (45.7%), prolonged obstructed labour (23.2%) and haemorrhage (16.5%). Evacuation of the uterus for retained products (42.5%), caesarean sections (32.7%) and administration of oxytocin for treatment of postpartum haemorrhage (13.3%) were the most common interventions. CONCLUSION: The met need for EmOC in Torit County is low, with 35% of women with major obstetric complications not accessing care, and there is disparity with Nyong Payam having a higher met need. We suggest more support supervision to the PHCCs to increase access for the rural population.