Coverage and factors associated with postnatal domiciliary care in Aruu county, Pader district, Uganda

Abstract

Introduction: Postnatal domiciliary care is one of the ways of delivering postnatal care which involves a skilled attendant or health worker following mother and baby at home and offering essential care. It’s emerging due to low facility-based postnatal care attendance and is expected to improve maternal and neonatal health. Domiciliary Postnatal care is being offered by Community Owned Resource Persons (CORPS) through Home-based care. Objectives: To assess the coverage and factors associated with postnatal domiciliary care in Aruu County, Pader district. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted in Aruu County, Pader district Northern Uganda. A total of 355 mothers who fulfilled the eligibility criteria were selected using cluster sampling at the parish level. They were interviewed using standardized questionnaires. Data was collected in February and March 2008. Qualitative data was collected from health workers/ CORPS using Focus Group Discussion and Key Informants interview. Data was analyzed using SPPS version 12.0 and STATA 9.0 Results: The coverage of domiciliary care in Aruu County was 16.1%.95% CI (12.2, 19.9). The factors associated with postnatal domiciliary care are: maternal age, high parity, distance to health facility, delivery in non health facility, occupation, level of education, ANC attendance and mode of delivery. Conclusion: The coverage of postnatal domiciliary care was low at 16.1%, (95% CI 12.2-19.9) There is need to scale up domiciliary care service provision so as to improve care for mother and baby in postnatal period.