The Role of Antenatal Care In Pregnancy Outcome: A Comparative Study In South Western Nigeria

Background: Pregnant women need a continuum of care to ensure the best possible health outcome for them and their newborns. Antenatal care (ANC) remains one of the interventions that have the potential to significantly improve maternal and newborn survival. However the use of ANC in developing countries including Nigeria still continues to be low.

Objectives: This study therefore aimed to identify the differences in pregnancy outcomes at a private health facility for mothers who had received ANC and those who had not, to enable recommendations for policy making.

Methods: A review of the records of the 144 mothers who had delivered their babies at a private health facility in south western Nigeria from January 2009 to December 2009 was conducted.

Results: In all, 37.4% of mothers had received no ANC, compared to ANC users, non-users were younger in age (27.5± 5.6 vs. 29.4 ± 4.9; p<0.05) and had a higher proportion with lower educational status (P> 0.05).  Unbooked mothers had a higher occurrence of pre-eclampsia (38% to 14.9% p<0.05) and were less likely to have received malaria prophylaxis, tetanus toxoid or haematinics during pregnancy (p<0.001). More often than booked mothers, routine investigations such as packed cell volume and urinalysis were not done in unbooked mothers (p<0.001). Over all 24% of unbooked mothers had stillborn babies against 4.3% of those who had ANC (P<0.001). Non- ANC users also had more caesarean sections (P<0.05), peri-patal complications and low birth weight babies, though difference was not significant (P>0.05)

 Conclusion: The presence of a skilled attendant at delivery may not be sufficient to improve pregnancy outcomes as shown by the poorer pregnancy outcomes for non users of ANC. Efforts to encourage the use of ANC facilities are pertinent to promote maternal and new born health and survival.

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