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ABSTRACT
Globally, there has been empirical report of tremendous decline in maternal mortality ratio (MMR). Positive maternal health-seeking practices during pregnancy involve timely antenatal care and planning for a healthy birth, including emergency preparedness, prevention of malaria, HIV testing and nutrition. However, access to and utilization of antenatal care services in rural areas is more limited than in urban areas. Broad goal of the study was to examine knowledge and attitudes associated with antenatal care services among pregnant women in UBTH. Specific objectives include to assess the level of knowledge of pregnant women on antenatal care, attitude of pregnant women toward antenatal care in UBTH and to evaluate factors influencing antenatal care among pregnant women in UBTH. Design was descriptive research design and study setting was University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City, Edo State which is geographically located at Ugbowo community. Sample size was 200 and self-administered questionnaire was instrument for data collection. Findings show overall knowledge of 10% of respondents with poor knowledge of antenatal care, 32% with fair knowledge and majority (58%) were found with good knowledge of antenatal care. Higher proportion (84%) were found to have positive attitude which could be as a result of higher knowledge found. Common factors influencing utilization of antenatal care among respondents show that majority of them use public transport to UBTH and only few walk to antenatal care. This particular challenge could cause discouragement when fuel and transport crisis abound and further reduce the declining rate of use of antenatal care among pregnant mothers. Also, majority (60%) of respondents have difficulty arranging transportation to and from UBTH however, only few (34%) reported paying for prenatal care as a problem. Majority (n=128, 64%) find the waiting time in UBTH a problem at their various visits only 2% (n=4) reported nurses attitude as a barrier to attendance of antenatal care. In conclusion this study demonstrated significant relationship between socio-demographics and knowledge of antenatal care. KEYWORDS: Antenatal care, knowledge, factors influencing, attitude, socio-demographic data, maternal mortality rate.
