Table 3 Women’s perspectives regarding perceived facilitators of and barriers to maternal health services in Eritrea (n = 40)

Health education:

Perception of quality of care:

Information related to:

A call for private healthcare:

• Importance of delivering in a health facility

Reasons:

• Danger signs (fever, vomiting, bleeding, discharge, persistent headache and/or dizziness)

• To have access to ultrasound scans (no ultrasound scans were performed on pregnant women who participated in this study in all antenatal care clinics we visited except in Orotta Teaching Hospital maternity ward)

• Breast check during shower for any lumps

• Vaccination

• To decrease the workload on the public clinics and avoid crowdedness of the health facilities. Therefore, less waiting time.

• To avoid short opening hours in the public clinics

Improvement in gender equality:

Previous hospital experience:

• Role of Eritrean women as combatants during the War of Independence

Reasons for dissatisfaction:

• Staff shortage

• Improvement in men’s attitude towards maternity care

• Lack of sympathy

• Poor treatment by healthcare providers

• Not enough information in the postnatal period (6 weeks after childbirth)