Abstract:

Introduction: The third delay is the delay in receiving adequate and appropriate treatment at the healthcare facility by mothers during and after pregnancy. Many factors attribute to this; shortage of staff, insufficient training, antibiotic unavailability and equipment among others.

Objectives: The purpose of the study was to ascertain the preparedness of Arua regional referral hospital to handle referred emergency obstetrics cases.

Methods: A qualitative contextual descriptive phenomenological design was used. A sample of six (6) carefully selected mothers and four (4) midwives were used. Triangulation of methods was used to enhance quality. Transcriptions of the interviews was analyzed using descriptive thematic analysis

Findings: As per WHO criteria, Arua Regional Referral Hospital was rated as a fully functional EmOC facility. Out of the 6 respondent mothers, two had received Emergency Obstetric Care three times from the facility while the rest of them received EmOC more than 5times. When asked about history of having been referred out, non of them was referred out. Again, when asked about the outcome of all their deliveries, four out of 6 had good maternal outcomes whereas 2 had bad maternal outcomes.

Conclusion: Arua RRH remains an EmOC Health Facility, falling in keeping with the World Health Organization standard as well as the Uganda national standard, although some improvements are still wanting.

Recommendation: The hospital needs to embark on training other surrounding health facilities on EmOC.

Keywords: Third delays, Emergency Obstetric Care (Basic and Comprehensive), Signal function, triangulation of methods, phenomenological study design and member checks.

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