Pattern and outcome of antenatal care among women attending a Catholic mission hospital in Ibadan, Nigeria.

Antenatal care (ANC) services have the aim of monitoring the course of pregnancy, in order to promote favourable outcomes. In spite of the fact that its components have been found to improve pregnancy outcomes, maternal/infant morbidity and mortality still remain public health problems in most developing countries including Nigeria. These unacceptable health indicators form the basis of this study. The records of 581 women who attended ANC at the Catholic Hospital between October 2005 and September 2006 were accessed. The data collected with the aid of a checklist were processed using statistical package of social sciences (SPSS). The age range of the participants was 17-45; with the mean age of 30.3 (SD = 4.8). Three hundred and forty-seven (59.7%), sixty-nine (29.1%) of the women had tertiary and secondary education respectively. A total of 325 (55.9%) were nulliparous. Only 44 (7.6%) of the women began ANC at the first trimester. Out of 159 abortions recorded among the women, 72 (45%) were self-induced prior to marriage. Findings showed apparent low rate of first trimester booking, irregular antenatal clinic visits and initiation of ANC at the appearance of symptoms of illness among the women studied. Therefore the study recommends hospitals to adopt the WHO modified ANC with fewer visits to improve better compliance and coverage, provision of family life education especially on the benefits of early ANC booking and family planning services through available media.