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Original Research

Women’s perspectives on quality of maternal health care services in Malawi

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Pages 25-34 | Published online: 09 Jan 2018
 

Abstract

Despite promotion by many stakeholders to improve maternal health outcome in many developing countries including Malawi, many analysts agree that the utmost success in maternal health will arise if maternal health care services are an unparallel led source for women’s health care solutions for any problem related to childbirth. Health advocates worldwide claim that even though maternal services are provided, women’s utilization of such services has not been ascertained. The objective of this study was to explore women’s perspectives on the quality of health care service delivery in Malawi. This article therefore investigates women’s perspectives on the quality of maternal health care services in Malawi. We used six focus group discussions in six health facilities that were selected across Malawi. We found that erratic availability of medical resources and unethical practices among health workers adversely affected quality of maternal health care service delivery. We concluded that the expensive routine operational audits of medical resources and service delivery across health facilities are imperative if women’s health outcomes are to be enhanced in Malawi.

Acknowledgments

KM was partially funded by Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources on some logistics during data collection across Malawi. Many thanks to the university for rendering the support that enabled this work to be completed at the time.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.