Assessment of Quality of Antenatal Care (ANC) Service Provision Among Pregnant Women in Ambo Town Public Health Institution, Ambo, Ethiopia, 2013

Abstract

Introduction: Antenatal care refers to care given to pregnant women so that they have safe pregnancy and healthy baby. Improving the quality of ANC and other reproductive health services has been shown to increase uptake of services and reduce the number of adverse maternal health outcomes. There is a limited attempt to measure the quality of ANC services in Ethiopia. Although, the coverage of ANC services has improved in the last few years, the quality of the services has remained comparatively low. The objective of the study is to assess quality of antenatal care services provision in governmental health institution. Methods: Institutional based descriptive cross-sectional study design was employed from October 23, 2013 to December 30, 2013. A pretested and semi structured questionnaire via interview was used to collect quantitative data from 288 pregnant women and in-depth interview of focal person at facility level to collect the qualitative data. The collected data was entered a only small number of participants had information on how to recognize serious problems occurring during pregnancy. Even if, as a principle all pregnant women should properly involved in decision making process, in this study almost half (44.5%) had not properly involved in decision making process during ANC service provision. Giving greater emphasis on the delivering information on how to recognize serious problems (danger sign) occurring during pregnancy and securing privacy of clients in order to improve quality of care was recommended. Pregnant women should be encouraged to reach at decision during client provider interaction by health care provider.