Table 7

Barriers to male involvement in maternal and child health

Problem	Root causes	Strategies to address root causes
Low male involvement in maternal and child health	Lack of health education, especially for men. Most often health education is provided by health workers during ANC clinics. Men rarely attended ANC clinics	Male champions providing education to men during social gatherings Community and religious leaders providing education during community meetings
	Traditional gender roles and norms. Maternal and child health is considered as women’s affair. Men’s role is mainly supporting women financially	Male champions providing education to men Community and religious leaders providing education during community meetings
	Fear of HIV testing. As part of the PMTCT programme, couples are required to test for HIV during ANC appointment. Men always prefer their wives to test first and assume that the wives’ results would be the same to the husband.	Male champions providing education to men on importance of couple HIV counselling and testing Community and religious leaders providing education during community meetings on importance of couple HIV counselling and testing
	Low birth spacing makes men fear to accompany their wives. Men think that they would be reprimanded by health providers and fellow men	Male champions providing education to men on the importance of family planning Sensitising healthcare to provide friendly services to couples attending clinics
	Couple relationships may encourage or hinder male participation in maternal and child health matters. The better the relationship, the higher the male participation and vice versa.	Women group members sensitising fellow women on the importance of better couple relationship
	Unfavourable environment in the health facilities. Most mentioned environments including long waiting time, disrespectful languages of the health providers, and lack of physical space to accommodate men and women concurrently.	Healthcare workers to provide friendly services to couples attending clinics The local government to improve physical space to accommodate men and women concurrently Engaging health facility governing committees to improve health facilities

ANC, antenatal care; PMTCT, prevention of mother to child transmission.