| dc.description.abstract | Background: Antenatal Care (ANC) is a complex set of activities aimed at reducing maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality which is achieved by decreasing the likelihood that a pregnant woman will experience serious complications during pregnancy labour and peurperium by improving the maternal death and pre-labor fetal outcomes of women with complications.
Purpose: This study will serve the purpose of identifying the factors associated with first antenatal care visits during the first trimester. This will assist health workers at Mukono general hospital to come up with appropriate health education programs about the importance of early attendance of ANC services.
Objectives: To determine the proportion of pregnant mothers who visited antenatal care clinic timely in Mukono general hospital, to identify the socio-demographic factors influencing timely antenatal care clinic visit among pregnant mothers in Mukono general hospital, to establish the maternal factors influencing timely antenatal care clinic visit among pregnant mothers in Mukono general hospital.
Methods: Analytical cross-sectional study was used to collect quantitative data on timely ANC visits and associated factors simultaneously at a point in time. A cross sectional study design was also cheap, quick data and easy to apply which allowed the researcher to complete data collection in time. Consecutive sampling was used to select eligible participants. All pregnant
women who attended ANC clinic at Mukono general hospital during the period of data collection were identified daily and asked to participate in the study consecutively until the required sample size was obtained.
Results: Results revealed that about four in every ten of the pregnant mothers initiated their first ANC visit within the first trimester at Mukono general hospital. It was also revealed that education level higher than informal education was associated with late ANC visit.
Conclusion: Results revealed that timely initiation of ANC visits among mothers seeking ANC services at Mukono General Hospital was low. Late ANC visit was associated with having formal level of education, being a housewife, lack of planning for the current pregnancy and 14 failure to conduct pregnancy test while early ANC clinic visit was associated with professionals,
peasants, residing in semi urban and urban settings.
Recommendations: To improve the proportion of mothers initiating ANC timely, this study recommends the strengthening of income-generating opportunities for women. Also, because pregnancy planning was associated with lower chances of early ANC timing, the study recommends a follow-on study to examine the reason for this observation. Finally, since pregnancy testing is associated with early ANC timely, the MOH could adopt communication messages regarding visiting a health facility within a week of a missed menstruation period for mothers. | en_US |
