UTILIZATION OF ANTENATAL CARE AND DELIVERY SERVICES AMONG WOMEN OF CHILD BEARING AGE

UTILIZATION OF ANTENATAL CARE AND DELIVERY SERVICES AMONG WOMEN OF CHILD BEARING  AGE

CHAPTER ONE

 INTRODUCTION

 Background to the study

Antenatal care service is an important goal concerning in the health status of the pregnant women during their reproductive period and its health beneficial accounting for nearly one quarter of all pregnant worldwide Terry TL (1942)

Through the antenatal care service attempts have been made to identify pregnant women not at risk and those at risk group based on their previous pregnant or currently historical or clinical factors and steps are planned to prevent it in this allegedly high-risk group of women to reduce adverse pregnancy outcomes Lincetto et al (2013).

Unfortunately, adverse pregnancy outcome can occur even in women without identifiable risk factors. Numerically, more pregnant women without risk factors have seen to end up with serious adverse outcome compared to those with risk factors during the attendance of antenatal care service Villar J, bergsj P (2002). In order to prevent pregnancy adverse outcome world wide as well as in developing countries, interventions should therefore be targeted at all pregnant women attending antenatal care service and during childbirth Dowswell T, et al. (2013).

Early attendance intervention at the antenatal care service in those with and without risk group pregnant women seems to beneficially in relation of their health  and this intervention that has been promoted as an effective intervention in preventing adverse pregnant outcome Adewoye KR, Musa IO, Atoyebi OA, Babatunde OA (2013).

The need of implementing knowledge, attitude and practice of ANC intervention in pregnant women it has been showed that as a package comprising the following interlocking system includes interventions, early screening, administration of a preventive prophylactic therapy and curative of the various detected risk conditions effectively on the basis of reduced maternal complications Zegey AM, Bitew BD, Koye DN (2013).

Additionally, antenatal care service is not a single intervention; instead, it represents a series of assessments and interventions over time that is not uniformly applied effectively by different health care providers found in developing countries Hajela S (2014).

Although not only  the “quantity” of antenatal care service  is relatively easy to measure through the required  timing and number of visits adjusted for gestational age at delivery but also the “quality” of antenatal care service  and the effectiveness of individual components on outcome are quite difficult to measure. However, the major goal of antenatal care service is to ensure the birth of a healthy baby with minimal risk for the mother.

Despite high ANC attendance in Nigeria, only 14% of pregnant women start ANC during the first trimester as per the national guidelines. The median number of months that women are pregnant at their first visit is 5.4 months. One third of women do not seek ANC until their sixth month or later Tekelab T, Berhanu B (2014). However, early booking has an advantage for proper pregnancy information sharing and pregnancy monitoring

Statement of the problem

In spite of the fact that exercise programs during pregnancy and after childbirth are designed to minimize impairment and help the woman maintain or regain function while she is preparing for the arrival of the baby and then caring for the infant, it is submitted that women are not meeting the exercise recommendations of the previous studies. A myriad of factors not limited to beliefs and attitudes of women with respect to exercise in pregnancy, level of knowledge, level of education, safety concern of the pregnant woman and her physician , race/ethnicity, and previous involvement in regular exercise have been implicated as important factors predisposing to exercise engagement or phobia among pregnant women.Some identifying factors that affect beliefs and behaviors would objectively encourage a change in attitude. Therefore, an assessment of knowledge and attitude about exercise in pregnancy may help to determine whether or not women will participate in exercise during and after pregnancy. This study was designed to assess knowledge and attitude of Nigerian pregnant women towards antenatal exercises

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