Utilization of health services by mothers of infants during their post partum period in Temeke municipal, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Abstract

A cross sectional study was conducted in Temeke Municipality in Dar Es Salaam during June to July 2003. The main objective of the study was to assess the utilization of health services by post partum mothers. A total of 290 mothers of infants and 42 MCR service providers were interviewed. Multi stage cluster sampling technique was used to select the streets to be included in the study while purposeful sampling was used for the MCR service providers' interview. The results from the study revealed that, almost all mothers attended antenatal clinic but only 23% attended post partum clinic. About 73.1 % of the mothers were informed to return to the clinic after delivery but the majorities (70.2%) were asked to come for their babies' service. Only 13% of the RSPs delivered the information on post partum care to their clients at the right time that is during antenatal visits while only 6% of the mothers acknowledged receiving such message at the right time. About half of the mothers attended the clinic in the 1st week while 12.3% attended after 42 days and majority (70%) of the mothers attended the clinic once. Majority of MCH service providers have knowledge on the need for postpartum care but there were some deficiencies on timing for the visits and provision of the , services.

The most common reason for mothers not to attend post partum follow up visits is lack of information on the need for postpartum care. For the mothers who were aware of post partum care, the most common reason reported by 70% of the mothers

viii was that "mothers felt that they have no problems after delivery and so no need to return to the clinic". Health education on post partum care, upgrading, refresher training to MCH service providers and to improve health system infrastructure are among the recommendations suggested to improve post parturn care in Tanzania.