The study examined the use of
maternal health care services in
Ibadan, Southwestern Nigeria. The
utilization of antenatal care services
was generally high(76.8%) , this
proportion is higher than the proportion
reported in the Nigerian demographic
health survey, 2003 which reported
66.6% but slightly lower than the
proportion reported in a study carried
out in Kenya by Anna M van Eijk et al.
in Kenya which found that 90% of
women attended antenatal care at
least once (3,7).
Women who were 25 years or
more were more likely to attend ANC
clinic more than women who were less
than 25 years. The findings of our
study agrees with a study of 15
developing countries which found that
younger women were less likely to use
antenatal care service(10) and another
study carried out in Peru were older
women were found to be more likely to
use antenatal care service(11). The
authors went further to suggest that
this may have been due the older
women having more knowledge and
placing more value on modern health
care. (11). In our study, most of the
respondents that did not use antenatal
care service were single and reported
not being part of decision making on
matters that concern their health, a
probable lack of support and inability
to determine matters concerning their
health might explain their limited use of
antenatal care service.
Location also appears to have
effect on the use of antenatal care.
This result is similar to the findings of
study by Mansur et al. in Bangladesh
which reported women based in urban
areas used antenatal care services
than those based in the rural areas12;
a retrospective observational study
between 1992 and 2001 in Australia13
and nationally representative
population based sample survey in
India11 also reported a higher use of
ANC services among respondents
based in urban areas than rural areas.
This is probably due to the fact that
women in urban areas are better
informed and the urban women have
limited access to ANC services as they
have to depend on the primary health
care centre for maternal health care
services. Thus, women based in urban
areas have a lot of options to choose
from.
Christians were significantly less
likely to attend ANC clinic. A survey of
452 randomly selected pregnant
women accessing antenatal care at
the primary healthcare facilities in
Sagamu Local Government Area
(LGA) of Ogun State, southwest
Nigeria found that Muslims utilized
ANC than other religions. The
influence of religion on the use of ANC
found in this study agrees with the
findings of our study This is probably
because most Christians attend
spiritual houses for care during
pregnancy as most Christian
organizations have spiritual houses
that offer care for women especially
their members.
The lack of influence of education
on the use of ANC service in our study