Family Medicine & Medical Science Research
Open Access

Abstract

Initiation of Antenatal Care and Associated Factors among Pregnant Women in Public Health Centers in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Adela LA* and Tiruneh MA

Introduction: Antenatal care (ANC) refers to the care that is given to an expectant mother from the time that conception is confirmed until the beginning of labor and also initiation of antenatal care visits is an essential component of services to improve maternal and new born health. Pregnancy related complication can be minimized if antenatal care is received timely or early in the pregnancy, during the first 16 weeks of gestation for the first time and continued until delivery. Pregnancy related complication is preventable. Studies show high maternal death prevalence worldwide and every day, approximately 830 women die from preventable causes related to pregnancy and child birth. Therefore, this study aims to assess initiation of antenatal care and associated factors among pregnant women in public health centers in Addis Ababa.

Materials and Methods: Facility based cross-sectional study was conducted among 670 pregnant women in public health centers in May, 2019 in Addis Ababa. Multistage sampling technique was used to select study participants. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 23. Binary logistic regression analysis was computed and variables with p-value ≤ 0.05 was considered as statistically significant to the dependent variable.

Results: A total of 670 pregnant women participated in the study with 100% response rate among all study participants, 274 (40.9%) booked for the first ANC early, before 16 weeks of gestation. The result showed that age AOR= 0.20, 95% CI 0.10-0.40) , education status (AOR= 1.26, 95%CI: 1.15-4.60), gravida (AOR= 2.10, 95% CI: 1.06-4.23), history of abortion (AOR= 0.43, 95% CI: 0.21-0.87), types of pregnancy (AOR = 3.14, 95% CI: 1.05- 4.37) and knowledge (AOR= 4.18, 95% CI: 1.06-5.50) were significantly associated with initiation of antenatal care.

Conclusions: The study showed that less than half of the pregnant women had early initiation of ANC in public health centers in Addis Ababa. This study indicated that age, educational status, gravida, types of pregnancy, history of abortion and knowledge were factors significantly associated with initiation of ANC. Hence, health education about ANC to enhance awareness is required for pregnant women.

Published Date: 2020-07-06; Received Date: 2020-04-28