Table 6 Expressed patient trust - Pregnant women perspective

Explicit trust

“I : Why would you trust the doctor?

P : If there could be no doctors I could not be even alive. They have really helped me.”

“Since I am sick, I will trust no one but the doctor, he will screen me and then tell me what the problem is.”

“You see you can discuss with people from home but they are not doctors, they will listen to your issues and at long last refer you to go and see the doctor because they have no knowledge on the same. At the hospital, the doctor will examine, test and know the cause of the problem while at home people will tell you it is just malaria; I think that seeing the doctor is the best thing.”

Direct impact of trust on acceptance

“I will comfortably receive vaccines here at the hospital because it has the right personnel. I will not take it anywhere else where there are no experts.”

“I believe that anyone who gives me vaccines knows why he is doing that; I believe he/she has gone to school and understands this issue better than I, and I have no reason to refuse as long as the vaccine does not kill me, and as long as my health improves.”

“ I : why wouldn’t you refuse to receive vaccines?

P : This is because it is important to our body and especially if it’s given by healthcare providers who are experts and informed then I cannot refuse.”

“I will accept because it is recommended by the doctor since that is their profession hence they have knowledge as to why they bring that new vaccine.”

“Some people even think if they are vaccinated they would come impotent like in men even women would not give birth like the case of tetanus, what other women used to say is that women have born a lot of children in Kenya, so that vaccine is a way of birth control that was going around which I also heard but I said if it is so that is what the government is planning which I don’t think is true, so me I just went ahead and received. It has not stopped me from conceiving, yes.”

Reasons for trust

1. Respect for provider’s education

2. Government authority

3. Belief in provider’s altruistic motives

“I trust them because these are people who have knowledge in that line, it is something they have studied, yes, they have been tested on that so they stand to convince me that I can rely on them.”

“I will accept because it is recommended by the doctor since that is their profession hence they have knowledge as to why they bring that new vaccine.”

“I will rank the hospital as the first, because the information you get from the doctor has no doubt since the doctor has the knowledge.”

“I will still admit because it is a government command”

“Yes, I do believe that vaccines are safe because the government cannot bring something that will harm us.”

“So I knew it was something that was initiated by the government so I did not see the need to debate it that is why I went ahead and took it, yes.”

“Because I know that when the Community Health Workers comes they come with the doctors and secondly when I’m in the hospital I trust all of them because I have never seen a doctor without a tag and that will prove that what they are doing is what has is authorized by the government.” “However, you cannot refuse yet it has been rolled out by the government and doctors. A doctor cannot prescribe harmful drugs, unless a quack.”

“I know the doctor is the one who treats people so if he gives me the vaccine I know it’s a correct thing, because the doctor cannot wish to harm anyone.”

“I : You have said you trust the doctor why do you trust the doctor?

P : Because they have already devoted to help people.”

Preference for public hospitals

P: I go to government hospitals.

I: Why?

P: Even if you do not get medicine, the medicine they prescribe is good because they are not looking for money unlike private centers where they tell you medicine are original and you are left wondering whether there are fake and original medicine. I worry about that.

P :You know everybody has their own decision but for me I decided all my medical advice and services I will be getting from a public hospital and that is why I am here.

I : So what is good with this public hospital that is not in the private hospitals?

P : In public hospitals you are sure, somebody will not cook. You are sure of services and it is not business so if you have a particular problem you will be told that you have this particular problem, there is no exaggeration or undermining that is why I choose public hospitals.