Objective: To determine the prevalence, reasons and predictors for home birth in a rural community.
Method: Descriptive cross sectional study which utilised a pretested interviewer administered semistructured
questionnaire to assess the place of delivery in their last childbirth among 410 pregnant women
attending antenatal care in Birnin Kudu, Nigeria. Logistic regression analysis was used to assess the relative
effect of determinants.
Result: Prevalence: Of the 410 women, 248 (60.5%) delivered at home in their last childbirth. Self reported
reasons: Home birth was opted for because of: lack of transportation 113 (45.6%), onset of labour
was at night 104 (41.9 %), preferred birthing position 72 (29.0%), tradition 60 (24.2%), fear of surgery 42
(16.9%) and poor attitude of health workers 32 (12.9%).
Predictors: The odds of giving birth at home was 3.88 times higher in women with informal education
(adjusted OR 3.88; 95% CI: 2.51, 6.00) and the odds of giving birth at home was 0.27 for women with
less than 5 deliveries compared with women with 5 or more deliveries (adjusted OR 0.27; 95% CI: 0.15,
0.49) after controlling for confounders.
Conclusion: The prevalence of home birth is high in Birnin Kudu and according to our respondents the
main reasons for this practice are onset of labour late at night with lack of transportation and a limited
choice of birthing positions. Provision of training and retraining of skilled birth attendants to assist women
birthing in squatting positions would encourage women to deliver in the hospitals