Abstract:

Background: Effective healthcare provider-client communication is a key element in optimal maternal service delivery. For the communication to be effective there is a need for both pregnant women and healthcare providers to build a good relationship. The aim of this study is to identify factors affecting effective communication skills among pregnant women attending Bugando Medical Center (BMC) in Mwanza, Tanzania during labor and delivery.

Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional hospital based study that used quantitative data collection and analysis methods. Data were collected by means of a self-administered questionnaire and a convenient sampling technique was applied to recruit all 135 pregnant women in the study in order to identify the factors affecting effective communication among pregnant women during labor and delivery after a permission to conduct the study was requested and obtained.

Results: The results showed that 45.6% of respondents agreed that the use of medical jargon among healthcare providers contributes to the communication failures, 64 (47.1%) of respondents agreed on encountering lack of trust to their healthcare providers during labor and delivery which can be a facilitating factors to ineffective communication, 60 (44.1%) of respondents also agreed that the effective communication has positively affected their health outcomes as 97 (71.3%) of respondents agreed on recommending the improvement of communication skills among pregnant women during labor and delivery, 49 (36%) agreed that when the effective communication mostly used makes them being comfortable and confident of their choices during labor and delivery and also 48 (36%) of respondents agreed that providers not being responsive could be the source of ineffective communication during labor and delivery.

Conclusion: Health education at community level and one-to one advice for mothers in health institutions and behavior change communications intervention strategies, which would support communication skills, should be introduced in pregnant women to bridge the gap on the factors affecting effective communication skills among pregnant women during labor and delivery so as to improve their quality of care.