Utilization of maternal and child health care facilities in Lagos State
Abstract
The Slogan "health is wealth" is a constant paradigm in development thought and planning. The need for improvement in the quality of life of the people is paramount in all development programmes as acknowledged in national development plans. Of particular interest in this paper, is the Nigeria health sector which has witnessed tremendous changes in institutional framework, programme implementation and management, all fuelled by the increasing realization of the immense relationship between the health of the people and national development. Commitment of the Nigerian government to improvement in health status,
particularly maternal and child health is manifest in their centrality in the national population policy objectives and several health intervention strategies. The extent to which these efforts yield equitable provision and wide spread utilization of MCH
facilities is the focus of this paper. In addition, the paper attempts an examination of Nigeria health status as a premise for evaluating Maternal Child Health (MCH) development in a metropolitan environment. Data for the study was derived from a
cross-sectional study in the three social areas of Lagos State, using a multistage sampling of 1,337 women with structured questionnaire complimented with focus-group discussions. The study showed uneven distribution of MCH facilities, fairly high but uneven level of patronage of orthodox sources of health facilities among women living in the high income areas (100 per cent), middle income areas (64.1 per cent), and low income areas (11.9 per cent). The findings underscore the relevance of facility availability to the uptake of modern healthcare services and the need for government to empower and monitor the activities of traditional birth attendants.