The significant association between maternity waiting homes utilization and perinatal mortality in Africa: systematic review and meta-analysis

A proper uptake of maternity waiting homes (MWHs) is important to improve maternal and child health (MCH). The aim of this review is to generate the best existing evidences concerning the MWHs utilization and its impact on perinatal mortality (PNM) among pregnant mothers in Africa. Both relevant quantitative and qualitative studies, investigated and reported from databases were explored. Meta-analysis of the studies was displayed by tables and forest plots. The Stata version 14 was used with the fixed effect model and 95% confidence interval. In this review, a total of 68,805 births were recorded in this review. About 1.6% and 7.2% PNM occurred among non-exposed and exposed mothers respectively. Fifty percent of the studies showed there is a significant association between MWHs use and PNM. Meta-analysis revealed that utilizing MWHs have a significant effect in a reducing PNM by 82.5% (80.4%–84.5%), I2 = 96.5%. Therefore, use of MWHs has a potential to reduce PNM among pregnant mothers. The review revealed that MWHs relevance to achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs) concerning reducing newborn mortality. Therefore, the utilization rate of MWHs must be enhanced to achieve SDGs.