Men's involvement in maternal health in sub-Saharan Africa: A scoping review of enablers and barriers

Enos Moyo; Tafadzwa Dzinamarira; Perseverance Moyo; Grant Murewanhema; Andrew Ross

doi:10.1016/j.midw.2024.103993

Men's involvement in maternal health in sub-Saharan Africa: A scoping review of enablers and barriers

Midwifery. 2024 Apr 7:133:103993. doi: 10.1016/j.midw.2024.103993. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Enos Moyo¹, Tafadzwa Dzinamarira², Perseverance Moyo³, Grant Murewanhema⁴, Andrew Ross⁵

Affiliations

¹ University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, College of Health Sciences, School of Nursing & Public Health, Durban, South Africa. Electronic address: moyoenos@yahoo.co.uk.
² School of Health Systems and Public Health, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa. Electronic address: u19395419@up.ac.za.
³ Medical Centre Oshakati, Oshakati, Namibia.
⁴ University of Zimbabwe, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Unit of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Harare, Zimbabwe.
⁵ University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, College of Health Sciences, School of Nursing & Public Health, Durban, South Africa.

PMID: 38626505
DOI: 10.1016/j.midw.2024.103993

Abstract

Background: Globally, there are about 800 maternal deaths every day, with low-to-middle-income countries accounting for most of these deaths. A lack of access to maternal healthcare services is one of the main causes of these deaths. In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), one of the barriers to accessing maternal healthcare services by women is a lack of their male partners' involvement. This scoping review aimed to assess the enablers and barriers to men's involvement in maternal healthcare services.

Methods: The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) checklist was used as a guide for this review. We searched for peer-reviewed articles published between 2013 and 2023 in the English language from SCOPUS, ScienceDirect, PubMed, Africa Journals Online (AJOL), and Google Scholar databases. Two reviewers independently conducted the data extraction and article selection. All of the authors discussed and decided on the codes and categories for enablers and barriers after using NVivo to generate them.

Results: Twenty-seven articles were used in this review. Of these, seventeen were qualitative studies, six were quantitative studies, and four were mixed-methods studies. The enablers of men's involvement in maternal healthcare were grouped into sociodemographic factors, health system factors, and policy factors, while barriers were grouped into sociodemographic, cultural, economic, and health system barriers. The lack of maternal health knowledge, insufficient economic resources, and unfriendly staff at healthcare facilities all contributed to a lack of involvement by men.

Conclusion: To improve men's involvement in maternal healthcare in SSA, there should be economic empowerment of both men and women, health education, and the provision of adequate infrastructure in healthcare facilities to accommodate men.

Keywords: Barriers; Enablers; Maternal healthcare; Men's involvement; Sub-Saharan Africa.

Publication types

Review