Exploring Selected Maternity Service Utilization among Homeless Mothers in Addis Ketema Sub-City, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: Descriptive Phenomenological Qualitative Study
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Date
2016-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Background: - Homeless mothers who become pregnant are least prepared economically and
emotionally to care for their infants. They usually lack gainful employment, as a result live in an
unstable conditions and lead an economically hardship life. In addition, the problem to pregnant
mothers is compounded by either lack of access or inadequate utilization of health care services
before and during childbirth due to various factors. This study tried to address and understand the
experiences of homeless mothers in relation to institutional delivery service utilization.
Objective: - To explore the phenomena and experiences to selected maternity service utilization
among homeless mothers who gave childbirth in the last 12 months in Addis Ketema Sub-city,
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Methodology:-A descriptive qualitative phenomenological study was conducted among
homeless mothers who gave childbirth in the last 12 months prior to the study and midwives
working in Addis Ketema Sub-City health centers. In-depth interview was conducted with 25
homeless mothers mainly from and around churches and mosques. Time-location and purposive
sampling technique were used to get homeless mothers. In-depth interview also was conducted
with 5 midwives by using purposive sampling technique from the health centers located in Addis
Ketema Sub-City of Addis Ababa City Administration. A semi structured questionnaire was used
to collect data and the collected data and the in-depth interviews were tape-recorded, transcribed
and then the transcripts were analyzed by using a thematic analysis method. The open code
software version 3.4 was used for coding and categorization.
Result: - Homeless mothers’ experience showed that barriers to antenatal care and institutional
delivery service utilization resulted from themes categorized as socio-economic, socio-cultural
and cognitive reasons. The major barriers identified from these categories include lack of
knowledge, priority for begging and house hold chores, lack of constant income, community
negative beliefs and sense of insecurity.
Conclusion and Recommendation: - An understanding of health care experiences from the
homeless mothers’ perspectives should guide the actions to address the cognitive, socio-cultural
and socio-economic barriers
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Keywords
Maternity Service