Perception of registered nurses and midwives on maternal health education in Nigeria

Abstract

Objective: To assess the views of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives on Maternal Health Education (MHE) and the barriers to its implementation.Methods: A total of 238 qualified nurses and midwives who participated in Mandatory Continuing Professional Development Programme (MCPDP) in South-eastern state of Nigeria voluntarily completed the self-administered research questionnaire. To avoid receiving duplicate copies of the questionnaires, all were serially numbered and all personal identifiers were removed. Of 348 participants that completed the questionnaires, only 238 met the inclusion criteria which included experience in antenatal clinics and qualifications in midwifery.Results: The majority of the study participants (86%) had both nursing and midwifery qualifications and the majority (98%) believed that MHE is beneficial to pregnant mothers particularly in reducing maternal morbidity and mortality (95.3%). A high percentage of the respondents (92%) agreed that MHE should be intensified for pregnant mothers in their work places. The identified major barriers to MHE include attitude of some health professionals (79%), some cultural practices (77%), inadequate economic resources (75%) and insufficient health personnel (71%). 18% of the respondents agreed that the hospital policy of their work places does not promote MHE.Conclusions: This study has demonstrated that nurses and midwives are aware of the importance of MHE in reducing maternal mortality and morbidity. There are still negative perceptions on the preparedness of the healthcare institutions towards MHE coupled with economic and cultural barriers. We recommend integrated MHE in the antenatal care plans of the pregnant woman.

Public Health Expenditure and Maternal Mortality in Nigeria

“…Empirically, Nwankwo (2018) examined the effects of public health spending on maternal mortality in Nigeria. A panel data regression analysis was employed from the years 2003 to 2015 from selected 25 States in Nigeria.…”

“…While some studies including Aziz, He, Sarker, and Sui (2018) produced evidence of a positive relationship between public healthcare expenditure and maternal mortality. That is, a one percent rise in healthcare expenditure will increase the maternal mortality rate, others including Nwankwo (2018), Igbinedion and Olele (2018), Owusu, Sarkodie, and Pedersen (2021) showed a negative relationship between public healthcare expenditure and maternal mortality. That is the maternal mortality rate declines as public health care spending increases.…”

Midwives’ acceptance of mHealth applications in the dissemination of maternal health education in primary healthcare clinics

“…The advent of mHealth does not confine ante-natal health education to the Primary Health Care (PHC) setting (Skinner et al, 2018; Susuman, 2015), but mobile devices facilitate the delivery of mobile instant messages based on a variety of topics pertaining to maternal health during pregnancy (Al-Ateeq and Al-Rusaiess, 2015; Barron et al, 2016; Lau et al, 2014; Skinner et al, 2018). Pregnancy related conditions can result in maternal or child mortality or morbidity (Nwankwo and Ezenwaka, 2018) with mobile instant health education messages offering an important counter measure.…”

“…However, despite the opportunity that mobile phone technology offers in disseminating maternal health education and various national and international policy documents, we are unaware of the potential barriers in their execution by midwives. Midwives are strategically placed for health education to pregnant women (Nwankwo and Ezenwaka, 2018).…”