Sociodemographic factors associated with postnatal maternal complications in public hospitals in Nairobi City County, Kenya

Introduction/Aims Focused antenatal care provides individualised counselling, targeted assessment and safe, cost effective, evidence-based intervention. It has been implemented in developing countries as a strategy to improve maternal health. This study aimed to investigate sociodemographic factors associated with maternal complications in selected public county hospitals in Nairobi City County, Kenya. Methods This was a cross-sectional study using a sample of 397 postnatal women who were given a questionnaire, with sections on their sociodemographic and health characteristics. Data analysis was done using the Chi Square test to determine the association between study variables, with P<0.05 considered statistically significant. Results The study found that 30% of respondents reported a maternal complication during their current delivery outcome. Sociodemographic factors significantly associated with maternal complications were age (P=0.002), occupation (P=0.001) and income (P=0.011). The health factors associated with occurrence of maternal complications were number of deliveries (P=0.001) and mode of delivery (P=0.001). Conclusions A number of factors were found to be significantly associated with maternal outcomes, including age and occupation. Further studies to determine why young women do not use focused antenatal care are necessary, as this would help reduce the incidence of birth-associated complications.