Study objective: To understand community based or socio-cultural factors that determine maternal morbidity and mortality in a semi-urban setting.
Design: The study is an exploratory multidisciplinary operations research and the instruments were focus groups and interviews.
Setting: Ekpoma, a semi-urban community with a population of 70,000 in central part of Edo state in southern Nigeria.
Participants: Thirteen groups of women, two groups of men, and two groups of traditional birth attendants.
Results: There is a fairly good knowledge of haemorrhage but this is circumscibed by attitudes, practices, and situations that keep women away from or delay the decision to seek modern obstetric care.
Conclusions: For a fuller understanding of maternal morbidity and mortality, it is important to consider factors outside the hospital and formal medical practice. Furthermore, a change of existing knowledge, attitudes, practices, and situations can be enhanced through modelling on them.