Factors Associated with Poor Utilisation of Antenatal Care among Pregnant Women in Selected Healthcare Centers in Ovia North East Local Government Area

Antenatal care (ANC) refers to the care that is given to a pregnant woman from the time that conception is confirmed until the beginning of labor, Viccars and Maputle (2015). Antenatal care is a key strategy for reducing matemal morbidity and mortality directly through detection and treatment of pregnancy related illness, or indirectly through detection of women at risk of complications of delivery and ensuring that they deliver in a suitably equipped facility Chandhiok, Dhillon, Kambo and Saxena, 2015).

Antenatal care is expected to have impact on the fetus and the infant as well as the mother (Likwa, 2013) .This can only be achieved through early booking and regular attendance of ANC. Antenatal care is a branch of preventive medicine dealing with pre-symptomatic diagnosis of general medical disorders, nutrition, immunology, health education and social medicine. In addition, early detection of pregnancy disorder is the key to modern obstetrics (Likwa, 2017). It is over a century since ANC services are available to ensure healthy mother and baby.

According to a study carried out by Harrison, 2007, in British journal of obstetrics and gynaecology, women who had no formal education and no antenatal care accounted for 33% of the study population, maternal mortality was 29 per 1000 live-births, perinatal mortality was 258 per 1000 births and 26% of infant weighed less than 2.5kg. Compared with women who received both formal education and ANC in the same study, maternal mortality was 2.5 per 1000 live births, perinatal mortality was 30 per 1000 births and only 8% of infants were of low birth weight. Previously in Nigeria, out of the annual million pregnancies, approximately 170,000 results in death that is related to complications of pregnancy and child birth (Orleans and Havcrcamp, 2019).