Quality of maternity care services before the implementation of prevention of HIV mother-to-child transmission in Côte d’Ivoire

Thérèse Delvaux, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp
Odile Ake
Jeanne Diarra, Institut National de Santé Publique, Côte d'Ivoire
Carine Ronsmans, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

This study was aimed to assess quality of maternity care services before the implementation of prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) in Côte d’Ivoire. The study was conducted in 2002/3 in five urban health facilities in San Pedro and Abidjan. It consisted of a standard description of each facility, observation and exit-interviews of antenatal consultations and deliveries and interviews of health workers. Average quality scores were derived for different components of antenatal care consultations as well as for deliveries. Regarding antenatal care consultations, average quality scores were highest for the content of clinical examinations and lowest for issues around patient’s autonomy. Regarding care during delivery, average quality scores were lowest fort the quality of the obstetrical examination at admission and the monitoring of the progress of labour. Important lessons for the successful implementation of PMTCT programmes in Côte d’Ivoire generated by the study will also be presented.