Predictors of Home Deliveries in Rakai District, Uganda

In order to identify independent predictors for home delivery, 211 women from 21 clusters, who had a delivery in the previous one year, were interviewed in Rakai District, Uganda, from June 2 to 30, 1997. Mothers answered questions regarding socio-economic, local, reproductive and self-efficacy variables and whether they delivered at home or not. Ninety-four (44.5%) of the women delivered at home. On univariate analysis, the factors that favoured home delivery were: not being from Kyotera Country, mother not having at least primary education, not being a Muganda, not being a Catholic, father not having secondary education, mother being a peasant or housewife, father being a peasant, living more than 5 kilometres from a maternity centre, living within more than one hour walking distance to a maternity centre, not attending antenatal clinic, saying that choice of delivery site is dependent on the mother, saying that safe delivery depends on God, previous delivery at home, and not being of high social status. On stepwise multivariate analysis, the independent factors that favoured home delivery were: not being from Kyotera Country, father being a peasant, previous delivery with an adjusted odds ration of 16.52. These data suggest that in addition to improving access to maternity services, educating fathers about safer delivery may discourage home deliveries. (Afr J Reprod Health 1999; 3[2]: 79-86) Key Words: Predictors, home-deliveries, Uganda