International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Review

The study explores the social economic factors that increase maternal mortality in rural communities of Umuahia North Local Government Area (L.G.A) of Abia State, Nigeria. To achieve this, a descriptive survey research design was adopted, and proportionate random sampling technique was used to select 2000 women of childbearing age from the two major clans (Ibeku and Ohuhu) in Umuahia North L.G.A. In order to address the objectives of this study, four hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Regression analysis was used to ascertain the effect of the socio-economic factors on the maternal mortality. The study revealed that socio- economic factors such as illiteracy, inaccessibility of healthcare facility, women’s level of income and delay in getting obstetric care had statistical significant effect on the maternal mortality with P-values 0.032, 0.002, 0.001 and 0.004 respectively. The study recommends that in order to reduce maternal mortality rate in the studied areas, more emphasis should be laid on addressing the social economic factors like illiteracy, inaccessibility of healthcare facility, women’s level of income and delay in getting obstetric care in Abia state and rest of the country.