To browse Academia. Poor and disadvantaged groups in developing countries, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, face various barriers to access and use of preventive and curative health services. Women are among the most disadvantaged groups in Tanzania and rural women are most affected because they live far from local and referral hospitals.
While the National Health Policy of Tanzania provides free maternal health services for pregnant women, utilisation of the services is still low.
This thesis investigates barriers and enablers to access to health care services by pregnant women in rural villages of Kerege, Matumbi, Kiromo and Kitopeni in Bagamoyo district, Tanzania.
The study used a naturalistic ethnographic approach, which focused on intensive listening to the stories and experiences of pregnant respondents and male spouses using in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and observation as methods of data collection.
In-depth interviews were conducted with sixteen women and four focus group discussions with thirty two men, and interviews with six health workers were combined with observation at selected government health facilities.
