Utilization of Antenatal Care and Skilled Birth Delivery Services in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Scoping Review

Monsurat A. Lateef (), Desmond Kuupiel, Gugu G. Mchunu and Julian D. Pillay
Additional contact information
Monsurat A. Lateef: Faculty of Health Sciences, Durban University of Technology, Durban 4001, South Africa
Desmond Kuupiel: Faculty of Health Sciences, Durban University of Technology, Durban 4001, South Africa
Gugu G. Mchunu: Faculty of Health Sciences, Durban University of Technology, Durban 4001, South Africa
Julian D. Pillay: Faculty of Health Sciences, Durban University of Technology, Durban 4001, South Africa

IJERPH, 2024, vol. 21, issue 4, 1-31

Abstract: Daily, the number of women who die around the world reaches an average of 800; these deaths are a result of obstetric complications in pregnancy and childbirth, and 99% of these deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries. This review probes the use of antenatal care (ANC) and skilled birth delivery (SBD) services in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and highlights research gaps using Arksey and O’Malley’s methodological approach. The screening of abstracts and full text was carried out by two independent authors who ensured the eligibility of data extraction from the included articles. An exploration of the data was undertaken with descriptive analyses. In total, 350 potentially eligible articles were screened, and 137 studies were included for data extraction and analysis. From the 137 included studies, the majority were from Ethiopia ( n = 40, 29.2%), followed by Nigeria ( n = 30, 21.9%). Most of the studies were published between 2019 and 2023 ( n = 84, 61%). Significant trends and challenges with ANC and SBD services emerged from the studies. It is revealed that there are wide gaps in the utilization of ANC and SBD services. Policy attention, intervention strategies to improve access, resources, rural–urban disparity, and women’s literacy are recommended to improve the utilization of ANC and SBD services in SSA countries.

Keywords: antenatal care; skilled birth delivery; utilization services; sub-Saharan Africa; systematic scoping review (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/4/440/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/4/440/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:21:y:2024:i:4:p:440-:d:1369658

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().