CSwMR

3.8 Availability of Maternal Health Services and Newborn Care
The SCSPA 2012–2013 was used to assess the following:
• availability of specific maternal health services
• availability of guidelines, means of transport, and equipment for delivery services
• availability of drugs and basic commodities to support deliveries and newborns
• percentage of facilities that offered emergency obstetric care for at least the last
three months preceding the survey
Availability of Specific Maternal Health Services
Table 3.14 shows the availability of maternal health services.
Overall, almost 9 in 10 health facilities offer antenatal care (89 percent), and 29
percent of health huts have outreach ANC services available. These services are more often
offered in health posts (91 percent) and much more frequently in public facilities than in
private ones (95 percent versus 60 percent). Even though these services are offered in all the
regions, they are less prevalent in Kolda (73 percent) and Kédougou (75 percent).
Normal delivery services are offered in 76 percent of all facilities and in more than
two-thirds of facilities in the regions, except in Dakar where only 37 percent of facilities offer
this service.
For caesarean sections, only 4 percent of surveyed facilities were offering this service
and only in hospitals (62 percent) and some health centers (10 percent). The distribution is
uneven across regions; In Fatick and Ziguinchor, no facilities offer this service, compared
with 10 percent in Dakar and 7 percent in both Thiès and Kédougou.
The vast majority (97 percent) of surveyed facilities that offer normal delivery
services reported that a skilled provider for delivery care is available at the facility or on call
24 hours a day.
However, daily duty rosters were observed in only 17 percent of these facilities, with
the lowest percentages in the regions of Sédhiou (0 percent), Matam (3 percent), and Kolda
(4 percent). It should be noted that there is considerable involvement of the private sector in
the availability of these services around the clock.
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