SOCIO-CULTURAL DETERMINANTS OF MATERNAL HEALTH CARE SEEKING BEHAVIOUR IN SWE SIDE OF BENIN REPUBLlC

ABSTRACT

Research on maternal health was conducted among the residents of the Seme boder community in republic of Benin to determine the available matem1 health care services in the community and the level of accessibility to residents, to find out the pattern of the maternal health seeking behaviour and to examining the relationships between the sociocultural characteristic and maternal health care seeking behaviour in the area. The major instruments used wed structured questionnaire, key informant interview and nun-participant observation method. The study establish that there are a considerable number of maternity hospitals and health centers in the community, many of which are privately owned residents tend to have a terrible level of access to the maternity services as here is no enough publicity either through word of mouth referrals or information from social service workers. The study also discovered that a very huge proportion of the residents of the area use both !he western maternal health care services and traditional substances. Due to the settling of this border area, a central cultural connotation is not prominent; hence the cultural influence on the maternal health seeking behaviour is not general to the society as a whole. Though many residents use the western (private and public) services, factors like husbands approval, money for treatment, and personal cultural preferences still had negative effects on the maternal health seeking behaviour in he area.