ISSN 2277-0879; Volume 2, Issue 8, pp. 97-104; September, 2013 Online Journal of Medicine and Medical Science Research ©2013 Online Research Journals Full Length Article Available Online at http://www.onlineresearchjournals.org/JMMSR An Assessment of Maternity Care Services in a Semi-Urban Local Government Area in Nigeria Jagun Olusoji E 1 , *Abiodun Olumide A 2 , and Olu-Abiodun Oluwatosin O 3 1 Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Obafemi Awolowo College of Health Sciences, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Sagamu. Ogun State, Nigeria. 2 Department of Community Medicine, Benjamin Carson (Snr) College of Medicine, Babcock University, Ilishan-Remo. Ogun State, Nigeria. 3 The School of Nursing, Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State, Nigeria. Received 28 August, 2013 Accepted 19 September, 2013 Maternity services provide opportunity for women to have a supervised antenatal service, safe delivery and to receive family planning counseling. The utilization of maternity services is not as expected in developing countries. The consequence of this is an unacceptably high maternal mortality. The aim of this study is to assess the available obstetric services and the potential to manage obstetric emergencies. The study is a cross sectional survey of maternity services in 60 clinics, hospitals and maternity homes providing maternity services. Antenatal and delivery services were offered by all the facilities while post natal care was done by 36.2% of the facilities. Majority (40.4%) of the facility clinical heads had not attended relevant training in the preceding year. Only 48.9% of them organized relevant trainings for their staff. 80.9% of the facilities had no ambulance to transport patients during emergencies. The most common bad obstetrics practice is Enema saponis (56.9%) followed by fundal pressure application (42.6%). While basic obstetrics care is performed in most of the facilities, the comprehensive components are not. The quality of maternal services leaves much to be desired. Efforts to improve the skilled attendance at delivery should be emphasized. A scale up of the midwife service scheme is required. Key words: Antenatal, essential obstetric care, partographs, referral, skilled attendant. INTRODUCTION Maternity services comprise of the total care given to a woman from conception to delivery and into the puerperium. The scope has also been widened over the years to include services rendered to women who are about to start families (prenatal care). The process of child birth is what is often anticipated with a lot of excitement. It is expected that the women will put to bed and walk out of the hospital safe. Maternity care services provide the pregnant woman the opportunity to have a supervised antenatal service, subsequent safe delivery and an opportunity to receive counseling on family *Corresponding Author's E-mail: olumiabiodun@yahoo.com ; Tel.: +234 703 856 9725. planning. While every woman should desire this, the utilization of maternity care services is not as rampant as it is expected in developing countries. The sequelae of this is an unacceptably high maternal mortality which is about 100 times more in developing countries than in developed countries [1]. Despite recent decline from 840 to 630 per 100,000 live births, maternal mortality is still unacceptably high in Nigeria [2]. In developed countries, 98% of all women receive prenatal care and 94% give birth under the supervision of skilled healthcare practitioners with timely access to appropriate emergency treatment if complications arise. In contrast, large numbers of pregnant women in Africa and Asia do not receive adequate prenatal care and lack skilled attendance at birth [3]. Utilization of ANC services