Exploration of women’s lived experiences and perspectives of maternal stakeholders on the utilisation of maternal healthcare services in Bauchi State, Nigeria

Maternal health care centres are designed to provide health care services for women of reproductive age to ensure safe delivery. Over the years, the high rate of maternal mortality, despite the government provision of maternal health centres, has been an issue of concern. From the literature reviewed, these healthcare centres' utilisation levels are not encouraging in rural areas, especially in northern Nigeria. Hence, this study explored the lived experiences of women of reproductive age and the perspectives of maternal stakeholders on utilising maternal health care services in Bauchi State, Northern Nigeria. A qualitative research approach with descriptive phenomenology was adopted as a research design for the study. Purposive and snowballing sampling techniques were used to select different categories of participants in the study. The participants were 23 reproductive women, 5 married men, 2 skilled health workers, and 2 Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs). Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and semi-structured interviews were conducted face-to-face to collect data from the study participants to answer the research questions raised for the study. The FGDs and interviews were recorded, transcribed manually, and translated from Hausa to English. The transcripts were analysed with Colaizzi's (1978) 7 steps and Braun and Clarke's (2006) analytic technique using NVIVO 12 Computer Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software (CAQDAS). Four (4) themes emerged from the analysis of the collected data. Four themes, namely communal belief, maternal healthcare factors, healthcare worker factors, and maternal healthcare adjustments, emerged from the analysis of the perspectives of the women’s lived experiences. On the other hand, five themes, namely community belief, traditional healthcare efficacy, women's issues, maternal healthcare factors, and maternal healthcare adjustments, emerged from the analysis of the perspectives shared by maternal healthcare stakeholders. It was recommended that all TBAs in the community should be registered with the health centres for proper monitoring and follow-up, advocacy programmes targeted at educating male partners should be implemented from time to time, government, non-governmental organisations, and enlightened individuals in the community should increase the level of health advocacy in northern Nigeria.