ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To determine whether the 17% decrease in the number of patients cared for at the Khayelitsha Midwife Obstetric Unit (MOU) between 1991 and 1994 could be ascribed to an increase in home deliveries. METHOD: Survey of Khayelitsha labour ward records, vaccination cards and family planning statistics at various clinics in Khayelitsha, Cape Town. RESULTS: The prevalence of home deliveries in Khayelitsha during the study period was estimated at 8%. Between 1992 and 1994, the number of acceptors at family planning clinics in Khayelitsha increased by 89%. CONCLUSION: As the number of home deliveries had apparently remained static, it was unlikely that an increase in the former had been responsible for the observed decrease in Khayelitsha MOU patients. Other possible reasons for the decline, viz. (i) an increase in hospital deliveries; (ii) an increase in the number of patients returning to the so-called homelands to be delivered there; (iii) an increase in confinements by private doctors and midwives; and (iv) that patients had shunned the MOU, were equally unlikely. The decline in the number of patients cared for at Khayelitsha MOU between 1991 and 1994 was most likely due to the evident success of the local family planning programme.
