Factors Affecting Implementation Of Maternal Health Care In Kajiado County

Abstract

Health system decisions in Kenya have, traditionally, been taken at the central level of the government, through top-down decision-making and resource allocation. Overall, there is limited, but increasing, participation of the mainstream civil society organizations in the development of health policies and the planning process for the health sector. The purpose of this study was to determine the factors that affecting implementation of maternal health programs in Kajiado County in Kenya. The objectives of this study are; to establish the effect of financial resource availability on maternal health program implementation on women of Kajiado County. To establish the effect of availability of trained health personnel on effective implementation of health programs Kajiado County. To examine how social cultural factors influence the success of health programs implementation in Kajiado County. The study adopted a cross-sectional survey design. The target population was all the 521 health workers in kajiado county hospital and the 5,678 households living within the proximity of kajiado town. The study used simple random sampling to select 52(10%) of the health facility staff and purposive sampling to select 30 households that were currently attending clinics at the county hospital. The study used a questionnaire and an interview guide to collect the required data. A pilot test was done on five health workers and 3 households to determine whether the instrument was valid and reliable. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics of mean frequency and percentage. The findings of the study showed that financial resources have an influence on maternal health care program implementation among the women in Kajiado County. It is also revealed that the shortage of qualified staff in the health facilities effect the successful implementation of health care programs among the women and also social cultural factors such as education and cultural issues affect the success of health programs implementation among the health facilities in kajiado county. The study therefore concludes that financial resources have an impact on the implementation of health care programs, it is also noted that adequacy of staff and social cultural factors also have an influence on the implementation of health care programmes among the women in Kajiado County. It is therefore recommended that health facilities should hire more staff to help in managing the implementation of health care programs among the women in Kajiado County it is also recommended that county governments should sensitize the local community to be able to move out from their cultural beliefs to be able to implement the health programs. There is also need to encourage community members to support the initiative of the health care for the mothers to help in managing the complications that mothers go through during this period.