EVALUATION OF THE INTEGRATED MATERNAL, NEWBORN AND CHILD HEALTH SERVICES IN SELECTED HEALTH FACILITIES IN OYO STATE, NIGERIA

INTRODUCTION: Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country, with 148 million inhabitants in 2007 with a total fertility rate of about 5.4. Poverty, demographic pressures and insufficient investment in public health care, to name but three factors, inflate levels and ratios of maternal and neonatal mortality. Globally, the burden of maternal death is brought into stark relief: approximately 1 in every 9 maternal deaths occur in Nigeria alone. To this end, the Nigerian Government , together with international partners, in 2007, came up with  a national Integrated Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Strategy. The main objective of this study was to carry out a situation analysis of IMNCH services in Oyo State.

METHODS: Both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collections were used through key informant interviews, desk review, review of available policy documents and records and comprehensive facility surveys. Multi stage sampling technique was used. The three senatorial districts in Oyo state were stratified into urban and rural Local Government Areas. Two local governments (I urban and 1 rural) were randomly picked using table of random numbers from each senatorial district and a cluster of 5 hospitals consisting of 1 secondary, 3 public /primary, and 1 private was randomly selected from each LGA. In total, 6 clusters of 30 hospitals were selected for this survey

RESULTS: The results reflected the general state of the health system in the country with poor records, lack of human resources, poor coordination of programs and activities on MNCH, poor staffing ,inadequate capacity building  and lack of collaboration between stakeholders being  major threats.

CONCLUSIONS: However, great strengths and opportunities were observed in terms of the state’s willingness to adopt  and support IMNCH and provide moderate availability of infrastructures. It was therefore recommended to improve on these gaps and weaknesses and capitalize on the recognized strengths and opportunities.