Vangen S: Barriers to Emergency Obstetric Care Services

Copyright © 2011 Abdou Jammeh et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Objective. The Gambia has one of the world’s highest perinatal mortality rates. We explored barriers of timely access to emergency obstetric care services resulting in perinatal deaths and in survivors of severe obstetric complications in rural Gambia.Method. We applied the “three delays ” model as a framework for assessing contributing factors to perinatal deaths and obstetric complications. Qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted with 20 survivors of severe obstetric complications at home settings within three to four weeks after hospital discharge. Family members and traditional birth attendants were also interviewed. The interviews wer