Republic of Kenya Influence of Provider Training on Quality of Emergency Obstetric Care in Kenya

In addition to infectious diseases, maternal and neonatal conditions account for a substantial part of the health gap between rich and poor countries. For example, more than 99 percent of maternal deaths occur in the developing world. The majority of the deaths are caused by direct obstetric complications, including haemorrhage, sepsis, eclampsia, obstructed labour, and unsafe abortion practices. In Kenya, complications related to pregnancy and childbirth are leading causes of morbidity and mortality, translating to 414 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. Although 88 percent of Kenyan women attend antenatal care, only 40 percent deliver in the health facilities, and only 42 percent of all deliveries have skilled attendance at delivery. In the Kenyan context, access to and use of quality emergency obstetric care (EmOC) are essential to efforts aimed at reducing maternal morbidity and mortality. We examine data from the 2004 Kenya Service Provision Assessment (KSPA) to assess the availability of EmOC services in Kenya, and to demonstrate the importance of health worker training in the delivery of these life-saving services. We find that less than 20 percent of maternal health workers interviewed had received training in focused antenatal or postnatal care in the last three years. Among caregivers providing delivery services, only 18 percent had received training in lifesaving skills, and only 37 percent had received training in the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV during the last three years. Our analysis also demonstrates that training is a critical element in the detection and management of complications. Recent training in relevant subject matter was found to be significantly and positively associated with the ability to provide quality care in the event of unsafe abortion and postpartum haemorrhage. Training was also positively associated with the ability to provide appropriate care in the event of a retained placenta. The obvious recommendation is to ensure that up-to-date, quality training is provided to a broad base of health workers at all types of facilities, particularly at the local facilities that are the first point of contact for women experiencing an obstetric emergency. It is recognized that there are logistical obstacles to increasing the number of health workers who receive training. Further, although we isolated the element of training for this analysis, it is clear from these findings that for optimal service outcome, quality-of-care training has to be undertaken within the context of improved infrastructure and as a support to service delivery.