Assessment Of Maternity Staff Training And Knowledge Of Obstetric Care In Burkina Faso: A Repeated Cross-Sectional Study

BACKGROUND AND AIM: The quality of maternity care in low-income countries has often been questioned. The objective of this study was to describe the trend of the percentage of staff trained on selected obstetric care topics and their level of knowledge of maternal care over a 5-year period in Burkina Faso. METHODS: We conducted a secondary analysis of data from two national emergency obstetric and newborn care (EmONC) needs assessments. Staff members’ knowledge scores were determined at the facility level for 2010 and 2014 and were further categorized into low (less than 50%), medium (50 to 74%) or high (at least 75%) levels. We used McNemar’s test with a 5% significance level to compare the distribution of the proportions in 2010 versus 2014. RESULTS: Out of 789 facilities surveyed in the 2014 assessment, 736 (93.3%) were eligible for this study. Most of them were primary healthcare centers (87.2%). Overall, 21.6% (n=197) of health workers in 2010 and 39% in 2014 were midwives. The proportions of staff who received training on focused antenatal care (FANC) and on how to perform active management of the third stage of labor (AMSTL) have increased by 15.8% and 14.7%, respectively. A significant proportion of facilities had health workers with a low level of knowledge of FANC (p<0.001), the parameters that indicate the start of labor (p<0.001), the monitoring of labor progress (p<0.001) and AMSTL (p<0.001). There was no significant change in staff knowledge in hospitals over the 5-year period. CONCLUSION: From 2010 to 2014, the proportion of staff trained in obstetric care has increased. Their level of knowledge also improved, except in hospitals. However, further efforts are needed to reach a high level of knowledge.