Factors Associated with Late Antenatal Care Booking and Utilization of Antenatal Services among Pregnant Women in Kumba Baptist Hospital

Antenatal care embodies care given to women from the time they become pregnant till beginning of labor. At this time the midwife provides the woman and her family with a centered approach by sharing information with the women to facilitate her to make informed choice about her care. Also Antenatal care can be defined as the care provided by skilled health care professionals to pregnant women in order to ensure the best health condition for both mother and baby during pregnancy. The institutional-based cross-sectional study design was conducted in Kumba Baptist Hospital with aim to find the factors associated with late ANC booking and utilization of ANC services by pregnant women. The study also assessed knowledge on importance of ANC by pregnant women and how lack of finance influence late ANC booking and if distance from health unit influence late attendance and use of ANC services. A random sampling technique whereby pregnant women who came for ANC visit and who met the inclusion criteria were unsystematically approached and given questionnaire. Verbal questioning was done where pregnant women could not understand or interpret the questionnaire. All the respondents 78(97.5%) accepted “YES” that there are measures to improve antenatal care utilization while only a small proportion 2(2.5) said there exist NO measures in improving antenatal care services usage. Only half of the pregnant mothers sampled have knowledge on antenatal care and it benefits. This entails that up to about 50% of women still do not adequately have knowledge on antenatal care and its importance to them and the foetus. Three quarter of the pregnant mothers have difficulties hindering them from having access and readily using antenatal care services, with poverty and ignorance being the most prominent, followed by long distances from the health unit which entails cost. These barriers are the major indication for low attendance of antenatal care.