Includes CD

Includes references(76-82 p.)

'ABSTRACT The impetus for the work presented here arose from the need that maternity healthcare in Benghazi and Libya as a whole has witness some challenges in recent times due to the present instability in the country. The research aims at investigating the level of maternity healthcare accessibility and utilization in Benghazi. Quantitative approach that employ questionnaire is used in the case study. The five fundamental dimensions of maternal healthcare accessibility and utilization have been investigated in the study and the surveyed women point out the major barriers they face when trying to access any of the maternal healthcare systems. The questionnaire has five different sections that include access, experience utilization, demographic information, and health seeking behavior and care utilization received and future utilization with several questions in each section. The study revealed that most of the pregnant women that partake in the survey fall within 26-35 years with 115 respondents. Also, 47 respondents in the survey have no any form of formal education while 90, 18 and 72 had primary, secondary and diploma and above respectively. The result obtained from the current research was compared with the existing literature. The two health approaches are elaborated. Also, the importance of demand side approach to the present study is presented. However, accessibility barrier which are presented in the theoretical framework is compared with the present study findings.Statistical analysis that include mean, standard deviation, correlation and Cronbach Alpha reliability test was carried out in the study. The factors that influence maternal healthcare utilization include availability, accessibility, affordability, adequacy and acceptability. Standard deviations of the five factors were computed and the results obtained show that availability has the lowest standard deviation (1.27628) meaning availability is most important factor. Furthermore, the correlation analysis was performed so as to know the level of association and relationship with each of the other factor. The results revealed that availability and accessibility has a strong relationship with 0.945 at 0.001 significant vii levels, the correlation analysis between availability and affordability shows a good relationship with 0.842 at 0.01 significant levels. The analysis shows very little relationship between availability and acceptability with correlation value of 0.237 at 0.01 level of significant. For availability and adequacy, the analysis revealed that there is strong relationship with 0.959 at 0.01 level of significant. To ascertain the reliability of the study, Cronbach‟s Alpha reliability analysis was performed for experience utilization items (questions), accessibility items and future utilization. The test was divided because each section contains items within different number of respondent. However, the result shows positive reliability with 0.89, 0.912 and 0.890 for experience utilization, accessibility and future utilization items respectively. Keywords: maternity, healthcare, accessibility, utilization, Benghazi, women.'