Mapping maternal healthcare access in selected West African Countries
Maternal and child health
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Issue: 1
(02 - 2020)
Background: The Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) three emphasizes the need to improve maternal
and newborn health, and reduce global maternal mortality rate to less than 70 per 100 000 live
births by 2030. Achieving the SDG goal 3. I target will require evidence based data on the
distribution of maternal health outcomes and their linl‹age to healthcare access.
Data and Methods: This study used WorldPop data derived from an integration of satellite, census
and household survey. Exploratory spatial analysis techniques were used to examine and visualize
the spatial distribution of women of reproductive age ( I 5-19 and 40- 44), live births and
pregnancies at subnational level in three “poor resource” West African countries: Mali, Guinea and
Liberia. Buffer analysis was used to quantify the number of pregnancies within user-defined
distances of a health facility.
Findings: Results showed wide variations in the distribution of maternal health outcomes across the
countries of interest and districts of each of the countries. There was also clustering of maternal
health outcomes and health facilities at the urban capital cities of Bamako, Conal‹ry, and Greater
Monrovia. A considerable number of pregnancies in most districts of northern Mali, northern and
forest regions of Guinea and counties in south eastern Liberia were not within 50km distance of a
healt facility, indicating inadequate access to health facilities.
Conclusion: To bridge the gap in inequity in healthcare access, and improve maternal and newborn
health in the study countries, there is need for equitable distribution of health resources and
infrastructure within and across the disadvantaged districts.
Keywords: Maternal health, districts, West Africa, mapping, geospatial analysis, buffer analysis.
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