Maternal perceptions of antenatal care provision at a tertiary level hospital, riyadh

Report maternal perceptions of antenatal care provision and identify deficiencies in the current model of care provision.

A survey was conducted to record maternal views about quality of antenatal consultations provided at a tertiary level hospital. Trained nurses and female health workers interviewed the patients attending antenatal visits during the month of July 2009. A standard questionnaire was use to enter the responses. Data were entered into the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) for appropriate statistical analysis of the results. Data analysis generated two groups. One group had up to 4 antenatal visits and the other group had more than 4 visits.

Responses were obtained for 244 patients. Chi-square test was applied for the comparison of variables between the two groups. Significantly higher number of women preferred to follow the 4 visit care plan (n=118/244 vs. n=103/244, respectively; p=0.004). Patient satisfaction was also significantly higher among women in the 4 visit group (n=112/244 vs. n=90/244; p=0.04). More than 50% of patients said that they did not receive any information about the process of labor, breast-feeding or contraception.

Women included in the study did not want frequent visits to antenatal clinic. Efforts should be made to provide information about labor, breast-feeding and contraception.