Maternity care monitoring: a contrast at two levels of health care delivery in Ibadan, Nigeria.

The obstetric performance of women delivering at two hospitals in Ibadan is compared in this study. The prevalence of high-risk pregnancies at the tertiary level hospital (University College Hospital) was higher than that of the secondary level hospital (Oluyoro Catholic Hospital). Consequently, the cesarean section rate of the UCH (21.8%) was higher than that at the OCH (2.3%). Similarly, the maternal mortality (3.5 per 1000) and perinatal mortality (60.2 per 1000) at the UCH were significantly higher than at the OCH, 2.0 per 1000 and 9.8 per 1000, respectively. The need for a national birth survey based on a representative sample of all the different types of health establishments in Nigeria was stressed.