Timely delivery of effective, safe, quality and personal
services is a key pillar of health system strengthening. A
Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (MNeCH) Project was
initiated by the Ministry of Health and World Vision Kenya in
Bamba Division, Kilifi County. The project’s goal was to
strengthen health systems at the facility and community levels,
including Antenatal Care (ANC). One of the strategies used by
the project to achieve its goal was to strengthen community
health referral system. The objectives of the study were 1) to
determine whether providing maternal health education to
pregnant women had any influence on ANC attendance in the
intervention and control communities and 2) to determine
whether issuing referral advice forms to patients has any
influence on ANC attendance in the intervention and control
communities. This study adopted the static group control design
to assess the influence of community health referral practices on
ANC attendance in Mirihini, the intervention community in
Bamba and Midoina the control community. Primary data were
sourced from 246 mothers of children aged below 2 years,
parents of children aged 2 to 4 years, as well as Community
Health Volunteers (CHVs). Quantitative analysis yielded
descriptive statistics and cross-tabulations with Chi-square (χ2
)
tests. Qualitative data were transcribed, described and analyzed
systematically to reveal themes and patterns. Maternal health
education: In Mirihini, there was no significant association
between providing maternal health education on the ideal number
of ANC visits and women’s achievement of optimal ANC
attendance (χ2 = 1.423, df=1 & a ρ-value = 0.233). In Midoina, a
significant relationship between the two aspects was obtained (χ2
= 3.109, df = 1 & ρ-value = 0.078. Referral documentation: In
Mirihini, issuing referral documents to pregnant women was
significantly associated with women’s achievement of optimal
ANC attendance (χ2 = 8.308, df =1 & ρ-value = 0.004). In
Midoina, there was no significant association between two
aspects (χ2 = 0.823, df = 1 & ρ-value = 0.185). The study
recommends the need for: CHVs to deliver more information to
support care-seeking behavior change; project officers to
strengthen supervisory support to CHVs by engaging with MoH
to provide reporting materials and ensure consistency of monthly
review meetings.