Perspectives of elderly women regarding factors contributing to maternal mortality in rural villages of Vhembe District, Limpopo Province

Abstract

Background Maternal health care provision is still seen as the main challenge in emerging countries, South Africa is no exception. Although the agreement has been made worldwide emphasizing the importance of the provision of quality maternal health care services when increased maternal mortality rates are to be reduced. Nevertheless, regardless of interventions to improve access to these services, a high number of women are not accessing these services timeously. It might be perpetuated by the deprived understanding of the relationship between most available antecedent factors, including sociocultural, economic and logistic factors. The purpose of this study was to discover the perspectives of elderly women regarding factors contributing to maternal mortality in rural villages of Limpopo province. This study investigated perspectives of elderly women regarding factors contributing to maternal mortality in rural villages of Limpopo province, using Kroeger’s determinant Model Conceptual framework. Methods A quantitative descriptive design was utilized. The researcher made use of the researcher/research assistant-administered completed questionnaires to investigate the perspectives of elderly women regarding factors contributing to maternal mortality. The population included all elderly women who met the criteria to participate, and who reside in the sampled villages. Questionnaires portrayed perspectives of elderly women regarding factors contributing to maternal mortality in the Vhembe district within the sampled villages. The analysis was done with the use of the SPSS Version 26.0 computer programme. Descriptive statistics were presented through frequencies, mean, standard deviations and percentages. Factor analysis was run to determine the factors contributing to maternal mortality according to the perspectives of elderly women. Results The majority of elderly women in this study preferred that pregnant women should consult at the health care facilities even though there were factors that have been revealed that hinder women from visiting the healthcare facilities such as the attitude of health care practitioners (n=161, 43%) and the long ques at the healthcare facilities (n=78, 20,8%). Being seen in public at the early stages of pregnancy was considered taboo (n=349, 93,4%) and is one of the causes that lead to late booking which causes the complications that lead to maternal mortality. Recommendations Given the evidence provided in this study, it is of paramount importance that there is a culturally congruent awareness intervention programme implemented to prevent misconceptions and myths as well other practices dominant in the study area. This is true given the need to prevent overlapping practices and approaches that can be detrimental to women during pregnancy, labour and postpartum. Conclusions The results of this study revealed the perspectives of elderly women regarding the contributory factors to maternal mortality. The findings provided clarity on the preference of the majority of elderly women which revealed that the western health care system was mostly preferred than the traditional practices.