Environmental factors affecting the delivery practices of hospital-based intrapartum care.

Background:  The annual World Health Organization reports confirm over 295 000 maternal deaths globally with most of these occurring during delivery. Interestingly, some studies have established a significant relationship between environmental factors and hospital-based intrapartum care.

Aim:  This study investigated the associated environmental factors among women presenting for peripartum care at the Ketté District Hospital.

Setting:  The study was conducted at the Ketté District Hospital.

Methods:  This quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted at the Ketté District Hospital on women presenting for peripartum care. A convenient sampling was used while a self-administered questionnaire was the data collecting tool to measure environmental factors affecting the delivery practices. Using IBM-SPSS version 29.0, logistic regression served for data analysis with statistical significance considered at p  0.05.

Results:  The study involved 471 women presenting for peripartum care, of whom 325 (69.0%) were aged 18-25 years. Most women, 429 (91.1%), indicated having used earthed road links to the hospital. The majority agreed having suffered complications during delivery. Means of transportation (p = 0.010), number of past pregnancies (p = 0.044), place of delivery (p = 0.001) and delivery outcome (p = 0.001) were significantly associated with delivery complications.

Conclusion:  The study found that delivery complications were significantly associated with means of transportation to antenatal visit, place of delivery, delivery outcome and number of pregnancies.Contribution: This study contributed to a better understanding of the effects of environmental factors on the utilisation of healthcare services during the intrapartum period in rural communities of Cameroon.