Globally, the maternal mortality ratio (MMR) dropped by about 34% from 2000 to 2020 (1). However, in many low- and middle-income countries maternal mortality remains a significant public health problem with nearly 94% of all maternal deaths occurring in low resource settings to date (2). Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has the highest rates of maternal mortality in the world, accounting almost 90% of the global burden of maternal mortality (3). This high burden of maternal mortality in the region has been attributed to preventable factors such as low antenatal care (ANC) utilization, low uptake of skilled attendant delivery and postnatal care (PNC) (4–6). In 2020, the maternal mortality ratio in the African Region was 531 deaths per 100 000 live births, which accounted for 69% of global maternal deaths (1).
Somalia is continuing its retrieval from three decades of underdevelopment, political instability, civil unrest, and protracted humanitarian crises. The country has suffered multiple emergencies including flooding, drought, famine, locust attacks, other climate change shocks which resulted in many deaths and large-scale population displacements (7). Somalia has a population of 17 million, with 44 percent of the population living in urban areas, 23 percent living in rural areas, 26 percent in nomadic areas, and 9 percent living in internally displaced settings (IDPs) (8). The country has one of the weakest health care systems in Sub-Saharan Africa, hence, some of the lowest health indicators in the world (7).
Somalia is among the 15 countries that WHO marked as very high alert countries for maternal, newborn, and under 5 deaths. Most of the causes of maternal deaths are either preventable or treatable. For instance, the maternal mortality ratio is 692 per 100,000 live births. Poor maternal health care delivery in the rural communities results the majority of the maternal, newborn, and child deaths during pregnancy, childbirth, and after delivery in Somalia (9). This is due to the poor access to maternal healthcare services including skilled birth attendance, emergency obstetric care, postnatal care, and family planning. Accordingly, a predictive analysis on the trends of maternal mortality ratio shows that Somalia is far from achieving the sustainable development goal-target 3.1 of reducing the maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100,000 live births in 2030. The country will not also meet the targets to reducing neonatal mortality to below 12 per 1000 live births and under-5 mortality to below 25 per 1000 live births by 2030 (10). According to Somalia’s Voluntary National Reviews Report 2022 (11) on Sustainable Development Goals specially goal 3, Somalia faces a significant challenge in reducing maternal mortality rates. One of the major hurdles is the lack of evidence-based knowledge that inform government interventions to improve maternal and newborn health (11).
Continuum of Care (CoC) refers to the continuity of care throughout pregnancy, birth, and after delivery (i.e., use of antenatal care, skilled birth attendance, and postnatal care). The continuity of care for maternal, newborn, and child health has become a key for improving the health of the mothers, newborns, and children. It has newly been emphasized as a core principle of programs for maternal, newborn, and child health, and as a method to reduce the burden of the maternal, newborn, and child deaths (12). Maternal and child mortality rates are indicators that are used globally to determine the health, economy, and developmental status of countries. Improving the utilization of the maternity continuum of care relies on a better understanding of the barriers and gaps affecting the uptake to each service i.e., ANC4+, SBA, and PNC. In this study, we aim to investigate the level of completion and coverage of maternity continuum of care in Somalia.