Early age at first childbirth and skilled birth attendance during delivery among young women in sub-Saharan Africa

BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth

Abdul-Aziz Seidu¹  Collins Adu²  Aliu Mohammed³  Eugene Budu⁴  Justice Kanor Tetteh⁴  Vijay Kumar Chattu⁵  Francis Arthur-Holmes⁶  Sanni Yaya⁷  Bright Opoku Ahinkorah⁸ 

[1] College of Public Health, Medical and Veterinary Sciences, James Cook University, Townsville, Australia;Centre For Gender and Advocacy, Takoradi Technical University, P.O.Box 256, Takoradi, Ghana;Department of Health Promotion, Education and Disability Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana;Department of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana;Department of Population and Health, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana;Department of Public Health, Saveetha Medical College and Hospitals, SIMATS, Saveetha University, 600077, Chennai, TN, India;Department of Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Datta Meghe Institute of Medical Sciences (Deemed University), 442107, Wardha, MS, India;Department of Sociology and Social Policy, Lingnan University, 8 Castle Peak Road, Tuen Mun, Hong Kong;School of International Development and Global Studies, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada;The George Institute for Global Health, Imperial College London, London, UK;School of Public Health, Faculty of Health, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, Australia;

关键词: Age at first birth;    Skilled birth attendance;    Young women;    Sub-Saharan Africa;    Global health;    Demographic and health surveys;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12884-021-04280-9

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundDespite the numerous policy interventions targeted at preventing early age at first childbirth globally, the prevalence of adolescent childbirth remains high. Meanwhile, skilled birth attendance is considered essential in preventing childbirth-related complications and deaths among adolescent mothers. Therefore, we estimated the prevalence of early age at first childbirth and skilled birth attendance among young women in sub-Saharan Africa and investigated the association between them.MethodsDemographic and Health Survey data of 29 sub-Saharan African countries was utilized. Skilled birth attendance and age at first birth were the outcome and the key explanatory variables in this study respectively. Overall, a total of 52,875 young women aged 20-24 years were included in our study. A multilevel binary logistic regression analysis was performed and the results presented as crude and adjusted odds ratios at 95% confidence interval.ResultsApproximately 73% of young women had their first birth when they were less than 20 years with Chad having the highest proportion (85.7%) and Rwanda recording the lowest (43.3%). The average proportion of those who had skilled assistance during delivery in the 29 sub-Saharan African countries was 75.3% and this ranged from 38.4% in Chad to 93.7% in Rwanda. Young women who had their first birth at the age of 20-24 were more likely to have skilled birth attendance during delivery (aOR = 2.4, CI = 2.24-2.53) than those who had their first birth before 20 years.ConclusionEarly age at first childbirth has been found to be associated with low skilled assistance during delivery. These findings re-emphasize the need for sub-Saharan African countries to implement programs that will sensitize and encourage the patronage of skilled birth attendance among young women in order to reduce complications and maternal mortalities. The lower likelihood of skilled birth attendance among young women who had their first birth when they were adolescents could mean that this cohort of young women face some barriers in accessing maternal healthcare services.

【 授权许可】

CC BY