Opinion of women on emergency obstetric care provided in public facilities in Lagos, Nigeria: A qualitative study

ABSTRACT

Limited attention has been given to opinions of women receiving emergency obstetric care (EmOC) in developing countries. We organized focus groups with 39 women who received this care from Lagos public facilities. Availability of competent personnel and equipment were two positive opinions highlighted. Contrarily, women expressed concerns regarding the seeming unresponsiveness of the service to nonmedical aspects of care, associated stress of service utilization, and high treatment costs. There is a need to leverage the positive perception of women regarding the available technical resources while improving institutional care components like administrative processes, basic amenities, and costs toward increasing utilization and preventing complications.

Acknowledgments

We are indebted to the women who participated in the research and the Lagos State Government Ministry of Health that facilitated facility entry.

Funding

We are grateful for the financial support provided for the conduct of this research by Innovate Lagos (Lagos Research and Development Council).