Traditional Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony in a Rural Ethiopian Hospital to Increase Hospital-based Delivery Rates

Overview

This study evaluates if organizing a postpartum traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony will provide an incentive for our antenatal care patients to eventually deliver in our hospital. Patients are randomized to either receiving, or not receiving, a postpartum coffee ceremony for them and their relatives.

Ethiopia has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world, with an estimated maternal mortality ratio of 497 per 100,000 live births. Cultural factors contribute to the underutilization of maternal health services. In 2014, only 20% of our antenatal care patients delivered in our hospital. In order to increase health facility-based delivery rates, government-funded hospitals and health centers facilitate traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremonies after delivery. We hypothesized that organizing postpartum coffee ceremonies would motivate our antenatal care patients to deliver in our hospital and would thus increase the hospital-based delivery rate.

Conditions

Interventions

Eligibility

Outcomes