Abstract:

Background: Antenatal care is a key strategy for reducing maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality rate adequate utilization of antenatal health care services is associated with improved maternal and neonatal health outcomes. This study aimed at determining the factors associated with attendance to antenatal care clinic among women delivered at Magu district hospital.

Methods: This hospital based cross sectional study involved women delivered at Magu district hospital, a convenience sampling technique was used to select 131 women delivered at Magu district hospital. Data were collected using questionnaire. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data generated and level of significance was set at 5% (0.05).

Results: The finding also revealed that there was significant association between experience on ANC, level of education, maternal age, planning of pregnancy and level of income of the respondents under study and their attendance/utilization of ANC services with p<0.05. The findings also revealed majority of the respondents 73(55.7%) booked for antenatal care in the second trimester, 45(34.4%) booked in the first trimester and 13(9.9) booked for antenatal care in the third trimester.

Conclusion: The main factors influencing attendance to ANC clinic among women of Magu district were found to be experience on ANC, level of education, maternal age, planning of pregnancy and level of income of the respondents under study, the findings also revealed there is a tendency of women to book late to ANC clinic which could be explained by low level of awareness toward early attendance to ANC among women of Magu district.