Maternal Reproductive Health and Medical Social Work Practice in Primary Health Care Centers in Rivers State

This study examines maternal reproductive health and medical social work practice in primary health care centers in Rivers State, Nigeria. Specifically, the study investigates how medical social work interventions influence maternal health service utilization and identifies the challenges faced by medical social workers in delivering maternal reproductive health services. The study adopted the system theory. A descriptive research design is adopted using in-depth interviews with medical social workers and selected maternal health service providers in PHCs across Rivers State. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis to identify recurring patterns and themes. Findings revealed that medical social work practice significantly enhance maternal reproductive health outcomes through psychosocial counselling, health education, advocacy, referral coordination, and family engagement. The integration of these interventions was found to improve antenatal care attendance, strengthen trust in health facilities, reduce socioeconomic barriers, and promote informed decision-making among pregnant women. However, several challenges were identified, including inadequate staffing, poor infrastructure, limited institutional recognition, financial constraints among clients, cultural barriers, and occupational stress experienced by social workers. The study concludes that medical social work is an essential component of comprehensive maternal reproductive health service delivery in PHCs. Effective integration of social work practice contributes to improved service utilization and better maternal health outcome. The study recommends increased recruitment of medical social workers, improved institutional support, enhanced funding for PHCs, and policy reforms to strengthen interdisciplinary collaboration in maternal health care delivery.