Abstract :
The poor utilization of antenatal care (ANC) services by pregnant women in rural communities compared to the customary patronage of traditional birth attendants (TBAs) in the study area was the impetus for this study. To assess the attitude and utilization of ANC by pregnant women in Udi LGA of Enugu State. Cross-sectional survey of 62 pregnant women (mean age=28.11 years) between 20 and 32 weeks of pregnancy and recruited using multistage sampling from households, TBAs, houses, churches, and women meetings were conducted using a researcher-administered questionnaire designed to elicit responses on their demographic characteristic, attitude to ANC services and their utilization of ANC services. The majority of the participants showed good attitudes towards ANC services; however, the utilization of ANC services by pregnant women in the study area was generally poor as most of the ANC services were used by less than 50% of the respondents. Some of the reasons alluded to for this poor utilization include absenteeism of health workers (43.5%) and distant locations of primary health centres (9.68%). Age (r=-0.300; p=0.018), education (r=0.522; p<0.0001), number of children (r=-0.255; p=0.046), spouses’ education (r=0.278; p= 0.029), and monthly income (r=0.310; p=0.014) had statistically significant correlation with the utilization of ANC services among the study participants. Rural communities in developing countries generally face myriads of challenges that affect their attitudes and utilization of antenatal care services including Limited healthcare personnel, fewer economic opportunities, rising poverty levels, low educational infrastructure, and high parity.
