Women’s Satisfaction with the Provision of Prenatal Service by the Care Providers: A Cross-Section Analytical Study

Objective The purpose of this descriptive correlational study was to investigate the relationship between women's satisfaction with prenatal care services and the demographic characteristics of the women and the service's features.Methods The population studied consisted of Turkish women living in Erzurum, Turkey, who had delivered their infants and were still hospitalized. The women had received prenatal care, had no complications during pregnancy, carried their pregnancies to term, and were considered to have had normal deliveries. The sample size was determined as 367 women, and 350 women responded to the questionnaire. Question items consisted of women's satisfaction with prenatal care services, the demographics characteristics of the pregnant women, and the characteristics of prenatal care. The questionnaire was given to the women in the birthing house. The researchers collected data using an interview method between 1 January and 30 April, 2002.Results In terms of the mean item score and total scale, the women were ‘somewhat satisfied’ with the prenatal care service. The women were more satisfied with health-care information and the ‘cost of the service’ dimension of the scale. There was an association between women's satisfaction with prenatal care services and the characteristics of both prenatal care and those of the pregnant women.Conclusion The sample of women in this study reflects only the study population in this area of Turkey. The findings of the study should be limited to this population. The scale would be useful for further studies investigating how prenatal care providers can better identify women's satisfaction with prenatal care service. A satisfaction measurement scale of prenatal care services would be helpful as an interview form that could identify the satisfaction scale and rate the scale's importance in the health-care provider's office, hospital, during a home visitation, or a primary health-care center, private clinic or maternity and child health center.

Background: Pregnancy period is one of the most important periods for mother and infant, and the maternal and fetal health during this period is of paramount importance. This study aimed to evaluate the satisfaction with prenatal (also known as antenatal) care services among pregnant women attending healthcare centers in the capital of Lorestan province (Khorramabad, west Iran).Methods: This cross-sectional (descriptive-analytical) study evaluated the satisfaction with benefitting from prenatal care services among pregnant women in the last months of pregnancy. The research sample was selected using a multistage sampling method involving a combination of stratified, cluster, and random sampling. The required data were gathered using a three-part questionnaire, including information regarding demographic survey questions, information about the extent to which pregnant women in Khorramabad benefit from prenatal care services, and the degree of pregnant women's satisfaction with prenatal care. Independent t-test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to analyze the data.Results: According to the obtained results, the mean score of benefiting from and satisfaction with prenatal care services was high. The difference in the score of benefitting from services was statistically significant in terms of type of pregnancy and a history of stillbirth (p <0.05). The number of children, occupation, and type of pregnancy were statistically significant, and these factors produced the mean satisfaction score (p <0.05).Conclusion: To increase the rate of benefiting from and satisfaction with prenatal care services among pregnant women, the health authorities of the region should take effective practical and educational measures to improve the quality-of-care delivery, train health service providers, and complete and equip prenatal centers.Keywords: Satisfaction; Care; Pregnant women; Healthcare centers Editorial Expression of Concern20 June 2025: Following publication of this paper, the internal audit (consequent to concerns on quality raised by Web of Science) notified Advancements in Life Sciences about suspected plagiarism. By this Editorial Expression of Concern, we alert the scientific community of the errors as we reconcile the records.Editorial Note25 June 2025: While rerunning the Turnitin originality analysis, a similarity index of 49% was found for this article (40% from a single source). Editorial board of Advancements in Life Sciences has started the process of retracting this article due to the above post-publication findings. The process shall be concluded after registering responses from the authors. Meanwhile, full text of the article shall remain unavailable for citations (this notice has been updated following insights derived from relevant COPE cases and the industry standards). Show of cause notice has also been issued to the concerned editorial team member.Rescinded: Editorial Expression of Concern23 July 2025: Editorial expression of concern issued on 20 June 2025 is hereby rescinded on account of author's explanation of the found similarity. Author's justification reads "I would like to sincerely confirm that the similarity identified—specifically with the article titled “Evaluation of the Utilization Rate of and Satisfaction with Prenatal Care among Pregnant Women Referred to Khorramabad Therapeutic Health Centers in 2020”—is indeed the result of a technical issue. This manuscript had been previously submitted to another journal (name redacted), but it was withdrawn before publication due to author request and lack of final confirmation from the editorial process. It appears that despite the withdrawal, a version of the manuscript file may have inadvertently remained accessible through the journal’s backend server or archive, leading to the match found in the Turnitin similarity analysis. As such, I respectfully confirm that the current article submitted to Advancements in Life Sciences is our original and unpublished work, and that the detected similarity stems from the aforementioned technical lapse, not from any form of unethical duplication". Concluding remarks: The inquiry team concurs with the authors as it could not find the article highlighted in the Turnitin Originality Analysis report either in the other journal's referred issue or elsewhere on the internet. With this rescinding note, a signed declaration from authors is also being made available here. Editorial office may be contacted for more details, if required.

This study is based on the 2000 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) conducted in Haiti. Using the DHS information on women aged 15 to 49 who had given birth during the three years preceding the survey interview, this study was intended to: (1) examine the determinants of the likelihood of the women using prenatal care in the rural areas and in the urban areas of the country and (2) for the women who made at least one prenatal care visit, examine the determinants of the number of prenatal visits in the rural areas and the urban areas. The multivariate analysis used logistic models to identify which factors explained the decision to seek prenatal care, and negative binomial models were used to determine how many prenatal visits were conducted by the subgroup of women who did make prenatal care visits. Estimated at the mean values of the control variables, the expected probability of using prenatal care services in rural Haiti was 77.16%, compared to 85.83% in urban Haiti. Among users of prenatal care services, mothers in rural areas made an expected number of 3.78 prenatal care visits, compared to 5.06 visits for the women in urban areas. A substantial percentage of pregnant women have access to prenatal care services in Haiti, but mothers in rural areas who decided to seek care still fell slightly below the four visits recommended by the World Health Organization. The education levels of both mothers and their partners is a dominant predictor of prenatal care use. Longer travel times and greater distances to health centers in rural areas constituted barriers to repeated visits. Policymakers and health care providers need to take these findings into consideration as they decide on the delivery and management of health care services in Haiti.

The study compared the prenatal care programs in the Central-East, Northwest, and Southwest regions of China. Data were collected on 14 indicators of the quality of the prenatal care process, as well as the percentage of women with high-risk pregnancies who were screened. The average number of prenatal examinations for those women who received prenatal care was 5.01, and 62.6% of pregnant women had their first examination within 12 weeks of their pregnancy. About 35% of these pregnant women had at least 1 high-risk screening, and 20.8% had 3 high-risk screenings. Among the 3 regions, the Central-East region had the best overall quality prenatal services, and the Northwest area had the poorest quality. The quality of prenatal health care in poor, rural China is in need of improvement.

Prenatal care in urban China: Qualitative study on challenges and coping mechanisms

This paper addresses issues concerning prenatal care in the US based on research findings from the Alan Guttmacher Institute. Ideally, every woman should consult a prenatal care provider approximately 1 year prior to conception for risk assessment and counselling on possible pregnancy outcome according to one's past reproductive and medical history. The 1st prenatal care visit should occur 6-8 weeks after conception and health promotion, alcohol and smoking avoidance, sexuality, and anticipated physiological stress should be addressed. Nulliparous women need more frequent direct contract with their prenatal care provider than parous women. The report concluded that for 1984-1986 1) 67% of women in the US received adequate prenatal care, 2) 18% received intermediate care, and 3) 16% received inadequate care and this proportion of women had increased since 1980. Those receiving inadequate care were characterized as being poor, black or Hispanics, uneducated, unmarried and young. WIth respect to pregnancy outcome, the highest rate of preterm delivery occurred in Mississippi (14.0%), and District of Columbia (17.4%). Also, 6.8% of babies born nationally are low birth weight (LBW), where Asian mothers have the lowest premature and LBW rates and Black mothers have the highest rates of premature births (18.3%, LBW babies (12.7%) and infant mortality. It was evident that few low income women had access to prenatal care despite the free prenatal care services provided in approximately 5,400 clinics. However, adjustments are necessary so as to improve the quality and access to prenatal care services in basically low income women.

Prenatal Care Visits and Associated Costs for Treatment-Seeking Women With Depressive Disorders

This study aimed to determine whether a history of depressive disorders is associated with use and costs of prenatal care among pregnant women in Taiwan. Participants were mothers with singleton births between 2004 and 2006 (N=23,290), some of whom (N=614) had received care for depression in the year before conception but not during pregnancy. The mean number of prenatal care visits was 8.50 and associated costs were $NT 51,187 for pregnant women with a history of depressive disorders and 9.17 visits and $NT 27,998, respectively, for those without such a history. After adjustment for age, monthly income, medical conditions, and obstetric complications, mothers with a history of depression were significantly less likely to receive prenatal care (relative risk=.94, 95% confidence interval=.92-.97, p<.001). However, women with a history of depression had $NT 22,494 higher prenatal care costs than mothers without a history of depression. Pregnant women with a history of depressive disorders had fewer prenatal care visits but higher prenatal care costs. Physicians should consider screening to identify pregnant women with a history of depressive disorders.

BackgroundPrenatal care is an important component for the continuum of care in maternal and child health services. Despite increased attention on prenatal care service coverage, the adequacy of service provision has not been well addressed in Ethiopia. Therefore, this study aimed to describe the status of the adequacy of prenatal care and its associated factors in Southern Ethiopia.Method A longitudinal study done by the Performance care Monitoring and Accountability (PMA2020) project was used. The study was conducted from August 2016 to January 2017 in Southern Ethiopia. A multistage stratified cluster design in which all enumeration areas were randomly selected using probability proportional to size and all households were screened to identify 324 pregnant women of six or more months. Questions regarding early attendance of prenatal care, enough visits, and sufficient services were asked to measure the adequacy of prenatal care. Finally, an ordered logistic regression analysis was employed to assess factors associated with the adequacy of prenatal care services.ResultsOf the total pregnant women 44.21 % attended enough visits, 84.10 % had early visits, and 42.03 % received sufficient services. The women residing in urban areas had 2.35 odds of having adequate prenatal care in reference to rural areas (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 2.35 [95 % CI 1.05–5.31]). Women who attended primary and secondary education had 2.42(aOR 2.42 [95 % C.I. 1.04, 5.65]), and 4.18 (aOR 4.18 [95 % CI 1.32, 13.29]) odds of adequate prenatal care in reference with those who never attended education respectively. The women participating in one to five networks have 2.18 odds of adequate prenatal care in reference to their counterparts (aOR 2.78 [95 % CI 1.01, 7.71]).ConclusionsThe adequacy of prenatal care services in Southern Ethiopia is very low. The Ethiopian health care system should strengthen one to five networks to discuss on family health issues. Further research, should validate the tools and measure the adequacy of the services in different contexts of Ethiopia using a mixed method study for an in-depth understanding of the problem.

Health service utilization patterns during pregnancy were studied among 780 women from selected neighborhoods of Jerusalem who delivered between December 1, 1985 and June 30, 1986. Factors affecting the choice of care-provider, the timing of the first contact with the prenatal care service and the frequency of visits to prenatal care centers were studied with respect to several demographic, socio-economic and needs variables. About one half of the women visited the Family Health Centers, the traditional site for delivery of prenatal care. Forty percent visited their regular doctor during pregnancy while about 30% sought private care. In all, fifty two percent of women consulted more than one source of medical care service during pregnancy. Logistic regression analysis showed that the choice of care was determined by the type of insurance, need factors and education. The timing of the first visit depended on origin, level of education and parity. The frequency of visits was related to the type of insurance and to perceived health.

The article reviews the maternal demographic factors the availability and accessibility of health care services preconceptual care risk assessment breast feeding the training of traditional birth attendants (TBAs) adolescent health care and family planning (FP) as antecedents of infant and early childhood mortality and morbidity. The maternal demographic factors which affect infant outcome are the age of the mother the mothers age at marriage marital status education poverty and family size and use of FP. Many of the maternal demographic factors are closely associated with insufficient prenatal care. Prenatal care services need to be easily available and accessible to all and be culturally sensitive. Understanding of a womans nutritional needs and broader living conditions is also needed. Tetanus immunization is required. Low birth weight can be reduced with early and regular high quality prenatal care. Womens general health before pregnancy can be assured with good personal habits nutrition treatment for medical conditions and safe environmental conditions. Preconceptual care involves risk assessment health promotion immunization against tetanus and intervention and followup. Only low risk women should deliver at home. Criteria for high risk need to be identified and might include: cephalopelvic disproportion in short women hemorrhage in a high parity or a history of previous postpartum hemorrhage and previous history of complications in pregnancy labor and delivery. Breast feeding particularly through the hazardous period of infancy is recommended. Nutrition of lactating women is an important consideration TBAs should be trained in hand-washing and safe umbilical cord care as well as more comprehensive training in anemia screening recognition of twins and abnormal presentations by palpation application of prophylactic eye ointment and assessment of at-risk pregnancies. Women should be referred for prenatal care and FP services. Predisposing factors to infant mortality may be grand multiparity poor nutrition unwanted pregnancy and overwork. FP can help birth spacing of more than 2 years and provide protection for young and older women. Health education and family life education are also needed.

The effectiveness of interventions to improve access to and utilization of prenatal care: a systematic review protocol

Access to prenatal healthcare for East African Somali Speaking Women (EASSW) who are immigrants to the U.S. has been dependent on the availability of a systematic healthcare treatment model. The purpose of this study was to explore EASSW's lived experiences in accessing prenatal healthcare services in the U.S. A descriptive, qualitative phenomenological approach informed by the work of Husserl was used to explore EASSW's experiences, views, and problems encountered while attempting to access prenatal healthcare services in the U.S. Fifteen EASSW of childbearing age (ages 18–45) were recruited for this study. All participants interviewed privately, beginning with a semi-structured, open-ended question regarding access to prenatal health care services, followed by three more focused questions. Due to cultural restraints, no digital recorder was used in this study, instead the researcher took pencil, and paper notes during the interviews. The specific aims of this study were: 1) to describe EASSW's experiences while seeking prenatal healthcare services; 2) to understand EASSW's views towards the American prenatal healthcare services available to them; and 3) to identify any problems participants encountered while obtaining prenatal care, including, if applicable, the reasons for not seeking early prenatal care services. Examination of participants' narratives revealed four major themes, including cultural barriers, favorable and unfavorable prenatal healthcare experiences, systematic obstacles, and the target population's lack of knowledge of the U.S. healthcare system. The study provided additional sub-theme categories regarding prenatal healthcare services for the EASSW of childbearing age. Further analysis of themes and subthemes identified three major categories of factors limiting access to prenatal health care in this population, including internal, external, and systematic factors. These factors include health care providers' lack of cultural sensitivity, a lack of quality interpretation services, EASSW's lack of access to resources such as transportation and childcare, and the complexity of the U.S. healthcare system. This study indicates the need for future research to understand more regarding factors currently limiting access to prenatal care.

Background:High-quality prenatal care services could decrease maternal-neonatal mortality and morbidities. The aim of this study was to compare institutional and unplanned home deliveries with regard to the use and content of prenatal care services.Methods:The study was conducted in 2011 with two hundred and twenty-nine mothers with unplanned deliveries at home as study group and 458 mothers having institutional deliveries as controls living in Istanbul. The content of prenatal care was evaluated in accordance with the national ministry of health prenatal care management guidelines and the data was collected by a questionnaire with face to face interview.Results:Women with unplanned deliveries at home use prenatal care services less frequently. Percentage of mothers that had home deliveries and did not use prenatal care services was 16.2% while this was only 3.4% in women having institutional deliveries (P=0.001). Moreover, all parameters of prenatal care were poor in content compared to women with institutional deliveries.Conclusion:Adequate prenatal care services in terms of quantity and quality can promote institutional deliveries.

Prenatal care is essential for optimizing the health of a woman and her baby. Multiple factors have created barriers in the access to prenatal care in rural Kansas. Over 120 rural hospitals in the United States have closed since 2010, 5 in Kansas. Seventy-seven of the 105 Kansas counties do not have maternity care services. This study investigated differences in prenatal care received by women in rural Kansas counties related to distance traveled. Differences in timing of initiation of care, number of visits, and services received were compared between two cohorts: those who drove < 19 miles and those who drove ≥ 20 miles for prenatal care. A survey was distributed to women who had delivered a child in the last three years in rural Kansas at participating clinics. Measures of adequacy of prenatal care were determined with questions regarding timing of first prenatal visit, number of prenatal visits, and services received at visits. An index was created using these variables and compared between the two cohorts using two-tailed t-tests for continuous data and chi square analysis for categorical data. Women who traveled ≥ 20 miles for prenatal care received statistically significant less services, and had less prenatal care visits in the second trimester and overall in their pregnancy compared to women who traveled < 19 miles for prenatal care. Rurality did not impact adequacy of prenatal care. Women traveling ≥ 20 miles to receive prenatal care had significantly fewer prenatal visits during their second trimester and overall in pregnancy and self-reported less prenatal care services. These results indicated the importance of lessening barriers to prenatal care in rural Kansas, such as transportation and financial barriers.