Abstract:

Everyday about women dies from preventable causes of pregnancy and childbirth. Ninety nine percent (99%) of these deaths occurs in developing countries in which most of them are in sub Saharan Africa. Antenatal care (ANC) is one of the recommended interventions to reduce maternal mortality rate and therefore its quality is a paramount importance.

The objective of the study was to assess the quality of ANC with focus on health education, clinical and laboratory investigations provided during the ANC in Magu district so a facility based cross sectional study was carried for 8 weeks from August 10, 2015 to assess the quality of ANC given to pregnant women attended ANC in Magu. Observational checklist was used to collect quantitative data and short exist interview was used to assess women satisfaction. One hundred and ninety seven (197) women were observed and only 168 women were interviewed during the study. Collected data was entered, cleared and analyzed using SPSS 17 version.

Of 197 observed women 35 (17.8%) were prime gravid, 74 (37.6%) were coming for their first ANC visit and 23 (11.7%) were coming for their fourth ANC visit. On health education 63 (32%) received information on how to recognize danger signs of pregnancy while 112 (56.9%) received information on plan for delivery, of 197 only 69 (35%) had their blood pressure taken and on laboratory investigation only 8 (4.06%) had their Hb level measured and none of the observed women had a test on syphilis while 135 (68.5%) had a test on HIV. Of 168 interviewed women 162 (96.4%) reported to be satisfied with the services they had received.

Despite high satisfaction of the women interviewed, antenatal care services in observed facilities in Magu is of poor quality and that call upon stakeholders and community at large to put more efforts on improving this important and sensitive part of maternal health.