Timing and associated factors of antenatal booking among pregnant women at a tertiary health institution in Nigeria: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background and aim: The timing of first antenatal booking is still a problem in Sub-Saharan Africa making the accomplishment of WHO recommendation of eight contacts before delivery a big problem. The factors associated with late antenatal booking are multifactorial and have not been studied in our environment. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of late first antenatal visits, and the associated factors in a tertiary health institution, South-East Nigeria. Materials and methods: It was an analytical cross-sectional study of consecutively recruited consenting one hundred and twenty pregnant women who came for booking. A self-administered, semi-structured questionnaire was used to obtain information from the study participants. Data were analysed using Stata version 16.1 statistical software. A two-sided statistical analysis was used with a p-value of <0.05 set as significant. Results: The prevalence of the late first antenatal visits was 65.00%, the mean gestational age at booking was 17.58 ± 7.91 weeks. The main reason identified as to why the study participants booked at the time, booked was that the pregnancy has been normal (64.17%), followed by complications (17.50%). Grand multipara [aOR=1.472;95% CI (0.503, 4.309)] and those with interpregnancy interval ≥5 years [aOR=3.519;95% CI (0.378, 32.724)] had a higher likelihood of late booking. Conclusion: The prevalence of late first antenatal visits among pregnant women is high. Grand multiparity and interpregnancy interval >5 years were identified as having higher odds for late booking. We, therefore, recommend that the public should be educated on the importance of early booking into antenatal care.