OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to examined the willingness to pay (WTP) for antenatal and postnatal physiotherapy among pregnant women and nursing mothers in Nigeria.

METHODS: A total of 120 pregnant women were purposively recruited for this cross-sectional study. Ethical approval was sought from the Health Research and Ethical Review Committee of the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospitals Complex. A five-section WTP and short form 12 (SF-12) health survey were used to assess the determinants of willingness to pay for antenatal and postnatal physiotherapy, as well as mental health domains of the respondents. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics.

RESULTS: The mean age of the participants was 28.9 ± 5.02 years. A high ‘no WTP’ rate of 64.2% was found in the study. Significant associations were found between WTP for antenatal and postnatal physiotherapy and income (χ² = 26.526, p = 0.001), education (χ² = 30.404, p = 0.001), ethnicity (χ² = 13.865, p = 0.001) and mental health domain of SF-12 (χ² = 11.150, p = 0.004). Those in middle socio-economic status were not willing to pay for physiotherapy with a percentage of 87.0%, whereas, those in high economic status were WTP with a percentage of 20.93%. It was also observed that the participants with three number of visits to the clinic had the highest frequency for ‘no WTP’ at 9.09%.

CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study suggest that there was a high prevalence of no WTP for physiotherapy among pregnant women and nursing mothers in Nigeria. Ethnicity, income, socio-economic class, and education influenced WTP for physiotherapy. This study may be of interest to decision makers when setting up and evaluating different interventions for pregnant women and nursing mothers.