Maternal health care and outcome of pregnancies in Kainji Lake Area of Nigeria.

A study of maternal health care and outcome of pregnancies in a rural area of Nigeria is presented. Over 80% of women sought maternal health care from the traditional midwives. The chance of survival of the child born was found to decrease with parity. In 95% of families child spacing was between 1-3 years. The peak incidence of multiple pregnancy occurred earlier and the rate was found lower than has been reported elsewhere. The health institutions in the urban area were found to differ in the quality of maternal services provided. The best service was not accessible to a larger population. The relevance of training the traditional midwives to the improvement of maternal health care was stressed, and the provision of referral centres to support them was recommended.