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Delay on first antenatal care visit and associated factors among pregnant women attending antenatal care in boditi town, southern Ethiopia: 2019.

Gedion Asnake, Hussen Lalu, Tizazu Birhanu, Bulcha Guye

Background: The burden of maternal mortality is the issue of both developed and developing countries. Especially in sub-Saharan Africa, including Ethiopia, the problem magnifies due to poor quality of maternal health care services. Almost all causes of maternal death are preventable, so Antenatal Care (ANC) is the entry point to tackle those causes of maternal death as well as complications during pregnancy. Though not well practiced in our country, early initiation of first ANC visit is crucial to tackle this problem. This study was targeted on assessing the magnitude and associated factors of delay on first ANC visit among pregnant women attending ANC in Boditi Health Center, Boditi town, Southern Ethiopia: 2019.

Methods: Facility based cross-sectional study with systematic random sampling technique was employed to select 283 pregnant women enrolled in antenatal care unit at Boditi Health Center, Boditi town from April 1-30, 2019. The data were entered using EPI Data version 4.4 and analyzed using SPSS version 25. Descriptive, bivariate and multivariable logistic regression methods were used to analyze the data. Variables with p-values of <0.25 at bivariate analysis were transferred to multivariable logistic regression and a P–value of less than 0.05 has been set as a cut of point to saw the association between independent variables and the outcome variable.

Result: From the total 311 pregnant women recruited, 277 responded to the questionnaire adequately making the response rate of 89.1%. Out of respondents who provided a complete answer, 172(62%) were delayed for their first ANC visit. Respondent’s living in urban area and those who had private employee husbands were negative associated with the outcome variable while, having a farmer husband, total number of biological living children, respondents who made decision together with their husband and those who reported the right time to start first ANC as after 16 weeks of last normal menstrual period were positively associated predictors of delay on first ANC visit.

Conclusion: According to recommendation of WHO, every pregnant woman needs to start antenatal care in the first trimester of pregnancy. However, this study has documented that delay on first ANC visit among pregnant women attending ANC unit at the study area was alarming.