Awareness and Practice of Prenatal and Obstetric Care among Mothers in Ekpoma, Edo-Nigeria

Ozor M. O.; Omuemu V. O.

A survey of 320 mothers who had carried at least one pregnancy to term was conducted to determine their awareness and utilization of prenatal services and hospital delivery. The study was conducted in Ekpoma, Esan West Local Government Area of Edo State- Nigeria, using interviewer administered questionnaire. The results showed that all the mothers (320; 100%) have heard of prenatal care and majority of the mothers (250; 78.130%) have good knowledge of it. Although majority of the mothers (306; 95.63%) utilized prenatal services during their last pregnancy, only 264 (82.50%) utilized the services of skilled birth attendants during delivery in the following places; public health clinics (14; 5.30%), private clinics (22; 8.33%) and teaching hospital (228; 86.36%). Despite the high degree of prenatal services utilization (95.63%) by the mothers in this study, it is worrisome to observed in this study that 17.50% still utilized the services of untrained birth attendants at home (11.88%) and the services of traditional birth attendants (5.63%). Based on our findings, it is suggest that further studies investigate the determinant of the utilization of hospital delivery or services of skilled birth attendants during delivery in the study area.

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