Women and Providers’ Perception, Attitude and Satisfaction with Focused Antenatal Care in Ondo State, Nigeria

Abstract

Aims: The overall objective of the study is to evaluate women and providers’ perception, attitude and satisfaction with antenatal care in Ondo State using the new Focused Antenatal care (FANC) model as this information will improve quality of ANC provided for women in Ondo state. Study Design: A quantitative design was used. Place and Duration of Study: This study was conducted in two selected hospitals in Ondo State, the State Specialist Hospital (SSH), Akure offering FANC as intervention site and Arakale Maternity Hospital (as comparison site), also located in Akure South Local Government Area of Ondo State Nigeria. The study was conducted between September and October 2011. Methodology: A purposive sampling technique was used in the study. 200 women were selected using simple random sampling from the daily register and all the thirty nurses working in the maternal and child health clinics of the two hospitals participated.  The instruments used were self-administered questionnaire for the nurses and interviewer administered questionnaire for the women. Data was analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Results: Findings from the study revealed that the majority of the women 104 (55.9%) were aged 25 – 34 years and majority of the respondents 110 (56.7%) of women, had 4-6 children. 120 (60%) pregnant women and 18 (60.7%) providers still preferred the traditional ANC. Hypothesis 1 revealed that there is a significant relationship between perception and attitude towards FANC among Nurses r = 0.59 P ≤ 0.01. Hypothesis 2 showed a significant difference in the perceived satisfaction among women in FANC and traditional ANC with t - 7.995, P ≤ 0.05 this shows that women in FANC are more satisfied. Conclusion: The benefits of quality maternal health service especially antenatal care cannot be overemphasized. Focused antenatal care practice can be enhanced by establishing link between the community and the health facility in order to increase utilization of the services offered by the new WHO package. Therefore, there is need for the implementation of focused ante natal care at all levels of healthcare delivery system in Nigeria.