All FGDs were held in the study communities at communal places such as the premises of local community Mosques.
The other context in which women's maternity care seeking decision-making could be understood relates to the communal nature of decision-making in the study communities.
Only farmers and settled pastoralists who have lived in the study communities for at least 30 years were selected for the interview.
At the time of the research over 90% of the land in the study communities was in private ownership with a tiny fraction held by ejidos or other communal ownership.
Only the persons resident in the study communities (farmers and settled pastoralists) were involved in the focus group discussions; therefore, transhumant pastoralists did not participate in the focus group discussions.
Observations and informal conversations were carried out in the study communities and clinics.
Degedege/likonde equivalent to convulsions was reported to be the second most frequent illness leading to death in the study communities (Table 2).
Focus group discussions with community members and trial participants and ethnography carried out in the study communities and clinics provided additional contextual information.
The quantitative survey revealed that 27% (n = 281) and 22% (n = 232) of the reported fever episodes among under-fives in the study communities were accompanied by vomiting and failure to drink/suck/eat, respectively.
In the study communities deliveries occurred at home.
The prevalence rate of PTSD in the study communities is unacceptably high.
