Journal of Women's Health Care
Open Access

Abstract

Timing of First Antenatal Care Visit and associated Factors among Pregnant Women Attending Anatal Clinics in Halaba Kulito Governmental Health Institutions, 2015

Mekdes Kondale, Tarekegn Tumebo, Teklemariam Gultie, Tariku Megersa, Haregwein Yirga, Anteneh Azimarew and Beruk Getahun

Introduction: Pregnancy is a very important event from both social and medical points of view. Therefore, pregnant women should receive special care and attention from the family, community and from the health care system. Antenatal care is a key entry point for pregnant women to receive a broad range of health promotion and preventive health services. Thus, the objective was to assess timing of first antenatal care visit and associated factors among pregnant women attending antenatal care in Halaba Kulito Town governmental health institutions, Halaba Special districts.
Methods and materials: Institution based cross sectional study was conducted from March 18-April 16, 2015. Systematic sampling technique was employed to select the study subjects. A total of 249 women were participated in the study. Data were collected using semi-structured questionnaire; entered in and cleaned using SPSS version 20. Bivariate logistic regression was carried out and independent variables which have effect on the outcome variable were determined at 95% confidence interval with p-value less than 0.05 was considered as significant variables.
Result: The study indicated that 27.1% of the respondents started antenatal care follow up timely (≤12 weeks). The median duration of pregnancy at first antenatal care visit was 4.3 month (18.3 weeks). Mothers whose age 26 and below(COR 4.04,95% CI: 1.51, 5.50), previous antenatal care use (COR 3.33, 95% CI: 1.59, 6.99), having decision power on current antenatal care use (COR 3.12, 95% CI: 1.45, 6.30), Urine test as means of pregnancy recognition (COR 5.18,95%CI: 2.74,9.81), mothers’ perceived right time(COR 2.48, 95%CI:1.01,6.09) and getting information when to book (COR 2.55, 95%CI:1.33, 4.87) have shown significant association with timely booking.
Conclusion: The proportion of pregnant mothers who practiced timely booking is low and therefore every effort should be made to organize and implement community based information education and communication on antenatal care and its right time of commencement at all level.