BACKGROUND: Antenatal care is essential to reduce morbidity and mortality among newborn babies and pregnant women. AIMS: To study the pattern of utilization of antenatal services and to find out the potential predictors, their distributions and their association with antenatal care utilization and pregnancy outcomes. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: A prospective longitudinal study was conducted in Deoli, a rural teaching area of a medical college of Wardha district, Maharashtra state. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Medical social workers contacted all the registered 305 pregnant women in 1 month. A total of 274 women were included in the study. The response rate was 89.83%. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: Percentages, rate ratio. RESULTS: Mean age at marriage was 19.8+/-3.6 years, and the average age at first pregnancy was 21.6+/- 4.5 years. Of the 274 pregnant women, 156 (56.9%) were pregnant for the first time (gravida 1), and the remaining 118 (43.1%) pregnant women, gravida 2 and above, had an average of 2.1 living sons and 1.9 living daughters. Only 92 (33.6%) women had undergone the minimum recommended antenatal checkup during their current pregnancy, and 188 (68.6%) women had institutional deliveries. A large proportion of women in Deoli do not receive proper health care during pregnancy and childbirth. CONCLUSION: In Deoli, antenatal services, in spite of being essential to the care of pregnant women, are being poorly delivered.
BACKGROUND: Antenatal care is essential to reduce morbidity and mortality among newborn babies and pregnant women. AIMS: To study the pattern of utilization of antenatal services and to find out the potential predictors, their distributions and their association with antenatal care utilization and pregnancy outcomes. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: A prospective longitudinal study was conducted in Deoli, a rural teaching area of a medical college of Wardha district, Maharashtra state. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Medical social workers contacted all the registered 305 pregnant women in 1 month. A total of 274 women were included in the study. The response rate was 89.83%. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: Percentages, rate ratio. RESULTS: Mean age at marriage was 19.8+/-3.6 years, and the average age at first pregnancy was 21.6+/- 4.5 years. Of the 274 pregnant women, 156 (56.9%) were pregnant for the first time (gravida 1), and the remaining 118 (43.1%) pregnant women, gravida 2 and above, had an average of 2.1 living sons and 1.9 living daughters. Only 92 (33.6%) women had undergone the minimum recommended antenatal checkup during their current pregnancy, and 188 (68.6%) women had institutional deliveries. A large proportion of women in Deoli do not receive proper health care during pregnancy and childbirth. CONCLUSION: In Deoli, antenatal services, in spite of being essential to the care of pregnant women, are being poorly delivered.