ISSN Approved Journal || eISSN: 2582-8185 || CODEN: IJSRO2 || Impact Factor 8.2 || Google Scholar and CrossRef Indexed
Fast Publication within 48 hours || Low Article Processing Charges || Peer Reviewed and Referred Journal || Free Certificate
Mean gestational age at booking amongst antenatal clinic attendees at a Tertiary Hospital in Rivers State, Nigeria
1 Mother and Baby Care Global Foundation, Nigeria.
2 Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, First Rivers Hospital, Nigeria.
3 Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Rivers State University Teaching Hospital, Nigeria.
4 Department of Community Medicine, Rivers State University, Nigeria.
5 Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Rivers State University, Nigeria.
6 Department of Physiology, Rivers State University, Nigeria.
7 Department of Family Medicine, Rivers State University Teaching Hospital, Nigeria.
Research Article
International Journal of Science and Research Archive, 2022, 07(01), 438–442.
Article DOI: 10.30574/ijsra.2022.7.1.0201
Publication history:
Received on 01 September 2022; revised on 18 October 2022; accepted on 21 October 2022
Abstract:
Background: Many literature have reported that the first 14 weeks as recommendation for pregnant women to book for antenatal care. The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended that pregnant women register for antenatal care (ANC) in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy or after two missed periods. However, there are challenges of late booking in the developing countries of the world due to illiteracy, socio-cultural beliefs, economy and religious ideologies.
Aim: To determine the mean gestational age at booking amongst ANC attendees at Rivers State University Teaching Hospital (RSUTH), Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria.
Method: The present cross-sectional and observational study was conducted after informed consent was given by antenatal clinic attendees. Antenatal women who attended antenatal clinic were recruited for the study during January to June 2019. Data was collected from the consented women using a pretested questionnaire. Data were expressed in absolute numbers and percentage scale. Permission for the study was obtained from the ethical committee of the Rivers State Hospital Management Board. The information was entered into a spread sheet and analyzed using SPSS Version 25.
Result: A total of 500 questionnaires were distributed and 488 questionnaires retrieved. The mean age was 31.44 years and the modal parity was 0. For the educational status 357 (73.2%) had tertiary level, 126 (25.8%) had secondary level, 5 (1%) had primary level of education, while 5 (1%) of the respondents did not provide their educational status. The mean gestational age (GA) at booking was 19 weeks. Eighty one (16.6%) of the ANC attendees registered for ANC in the third trimester. Total number of ANC attendees that registered late for ANC were 414 (84.8%).
Conclusion: The study revealed that majority of antenatal clinic attendees at the RSUTH registered late for ANC representing 84.8% of the pregnant women at booking. There is need to educate women of reproductive age to register early for ANC to prevent adverse maternal and perinatal outcome.
Keywords:
Mean; Gestational age; Booking; ANC attendees; RSUTH
Full text article in PDF:
Copyright information:
Copyright © 2022 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article. This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Liscense 4.0
