Perceived Physical Barriers to Maternal Health Seeking Behavior among Rural Women: The Case of Raya-Alamata District, Southern Tigray, Ethiopia

Introduction: Maternal health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being of the mother; it is a resource for everyday life of the mother. It encompasses the health care dimensions of family planning, preconception, prenatal, and postnatal care in order to reduce maternal morbidity and mortality. The use of antenatal, delivery and postnatal care services can be accessed through the number and timing of ANC visits, proportion of births delivered in health centers, attendants during delivery and antenatal care and number of postnatal visits. Health care services during pregnancy and after delivery are important for the survival and wellbeing of both the mother and the infant. Objective: The overall objective of this study is to investigate the perceived physical barriers to maternal health seeking behavior of rural women in Raya Alamata district. Methods: The researcher employed mixed research methods (both qualitative and quantitative). The study populations were reproductive women in the age category of 15-49. In doing so, a sample of 359 reproductive women was selected from three ‘Tabias’ by using simple random sampling techniques. The qualitative data analyzed using thematic analysis whereas the quantitative data analyzed using descriptive statistics. Result: Based on the finding this study, the majority of the respondents 31% were found between the age category of 25- 34 years, 87.5% were married, 93.6% belongs to Tigrian ethnic groups, 71.6% are followers of orthodox Christian, 60.7% were illiterate; and the majority 44.7% of the respondents earned an average monthly income of 501-1000 birr. Rural women also travelled 3.87 km, 5 km, 10 km and 6.4 km in average to get maternal health services from health posts, health centers, hospitals and private clinics respectively. Moreover, long distance and lack of transportation, inequitable distribution of health facilities, inconvenient topography and weather related problems were the major barriers for rural women to get maternal health services. These perceived physical barriers have affected the treatment seeking behavior of rural women especially throughout pregnancy, delivery and postnatal stages. Conclusion: The findings of this study give much emphasis into the perceived physical barriers to maternal health seeking behavior among rural women. The physical barriers restrained rural women from getting antenatal, delivery and postnatal care services which led to pregnancy complications, home delivery, and post-delivery problems which resulted in maternal morbidity and mortality.