Attitude of women of NWFP towards antenatal care

A safe motherhood initiative is a global effort to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity. This aims to ensure improvement in the quality and safety of lives of women through adoption of health and non-health strategies. Antenatal care is a branch of preventive medicine dealing with prevention and early detection of pregnancy disorders. It is the key to modern obstetrics.

It was a descriptive type of study to find out the attitude of the women towards utilization of antenatal care facility at a newly commissioned hospital, Hayatabad Medical Complex, Peshawar, Pakistan in the first year of its working.

We recorded 980 patients. All of them were married. Monthly attendance showed increasing trend. In this study 72.44% of the women were of 25-35 year of age while 11.42% were teenager. Multiparity was recorded in 38.97% and 12.14% had more then nine pregnancies. Six hundred and fifty patients were living near the hospital. 2.24% patients visited more than six times and 63.26% had one visit only, with the rest visiting for 2-5 times. Thirty patients had medical disorders. Obstetrical diseases were detected in 194 patients. Pregnancy losses contributed to 146 women and 3 women had more then 6 losses. 254 women selected hospital delivery. Out of then 160 women were booked in the 3rd trimester. Caesarean section rate among those women was 16.4%.

The conclusion drawn was that the women living near the hospital used the facility. Antenatal care should be provided to the women at the doorstep of their house. There is a system of lady health workers that should be expanded to cover all areas. Basic health units must be fully equipped and staffed. Communication system should be improved. There is a need to include health education in the curricula of primary education.