Delivery care policy: social dimensions.

Firstly, in regard to community perceptions concerning the advantages and disadvantages of institutional delivery care at the household level, results show that many non-users of health services held negative views on the attitude of health care providers. The findings do not stipulate which income or education strata of society actually hold this view; but future behaviour change communication strategies and programmes would benefit from that information. Although the fee exemption policy apparently benefited rich and poor, the results show that it was the rich that benefited most. Our future programmes need to find ways to re-dress that imbalance and ensure that the poor and the extreme poor (being in the majority and with highest fertility levels and health-risk factors) benefit the most if we are to see any decline in maternal mortality at the national level.