Postpartum care attendance at a rural district hospital in Zambia

Postpartum care is an important tool in both preventive and promotive maternal health care. We studied the postpartum care attendance rate in 540 women who delivered at a district hospital in Zambia. Forty-two percent of the women attended postpartum care within six weeks of delivery. Women who did not come for postpartum care were older and had to travel more hours to the hospital than women who attended postpartum care. The low postpartum care attendance rate could be increased if health workers provided mother and child health care in an integrated way and were aware that recently delivered women also visit the hospital for reasons other than postpartum care. Health workers need to inform pregnant women about the benefits of postpartum care and make them feel welcome to attend this health service, also when women decide to deliver at home.