By Onah, Bridget Nkechinelu
Maternal mortality is defined by (WHO, 1997) as "death of a woman while
pregnant or within 42 clays of termination of pregnancy irrespective of the
duration or site of pregnancy from any cause related to or aggravated by
pregnancy or its management but not by accidental causes". Maternal mortality is
widely recognized as a pubIic health problem which has attracted worId wide
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attention and reactions. This study addresses the socia-cultural factors in maternal
mortality in Njikoka Local Government Area of Anambra State, Nigeria.
A total of 1000 women of reproductive age (15-49) were randomly selected from
Abaga~ia and Enugwu-Ukwu. In Abagana three (3) villages were randomly
selected while in Enugwu-Ukwu three villages, Adagbe Abomimi, Uru Nebo and
. . . . . were used for the study. Questionnaires, were used to generate quantitative
data while Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and In-depth Interviews were
apblied to elicit both quantitative and qualitative information.
U.N. 01lok (1997) M.Sc. Thesis, Dept of&ciok)gy di Anthropology, UArN
The quantitative data collected were coded, con~puterized and analyzed using
frequency distribution, percentages, and cross tabulations of contingency tables.
Pie and bar charts were used for illustrations.
FINDINGS.
Our survey revealed that almost all the respondents (98.8%) were married, Most
of the respondents (56%) were petty traders, 30% were school teachers while the
rest were farmers. In respect of education status, 68% of the respondents in
Abagana and 45% in Enugwu-ukwu attained secondary school education. Post-
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secondary education was attained by 34% of the respondents in Enugwu-Ukwu
and only 5 % in Abagana
The decision to seek health care was mostly determined by the husbands (34%)
and the respondents themselves (24%). By implication both husbands and wives
take decisions jointly on issues of seeking health care. The reason given for most
decisions being taken by the husband was that they footed the bills.