Second Delay Factors Influencing Perinatal Mortality among Mothers in Lurambi and Butere Sub-Counties, Kakamega County, Kenya

Purpose: To examine the association between maternal delay in reaching appropriate health facility and perinatal mortality in Lurambi and Butere sub-counties, Kakamega Kenya Methodology: A community based retrospective cross-sectional research design was adopted using mixed methods for data collection. A total of 520 respondents were randomly selected from 40 out 830 villages of Lurambi and Butere sub-counties using multistage cluster sampling. The respondents were interviewed from November 2017 to March 2018. Data entry and analysis was done using SPSS Version 25 software. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were used. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regressions were applied and adjusted odds ratio was used to determine the strength of association. A p-value of ≤ 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Findings: Mothers who were aware of the appropriate health facility were 90% less likely to experience perinatal deaths (AOR: 0.1; 95% CI: 0.1 – 0.4; p< 0.0001), mothers who visited appropriate health facility were 80% less likely to experience perinatal deaths (AOR=0.2; 95%CI: 0.1-0.6; p=0.002). Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice, and Policy: Unique finding is that proximity to a health facility alone is not critical but proximity to the appropriate health facility that will be able to provide the needed maternal and newborn care is very important in reduction of perinatal mortality. In addition, interventions aimed at creating awareness on the appropriate facility to visit during maternal and newborn complication is critical to ensure perinatal survival.