PREGNANCY DURATION AND CHOICE OF ANTE NATAL AND DELIVERY CARE
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1Â Â Â Â Â Â Background of the Study
Antenatal care (ANC) that includes education, screening, counseling, treatment, promoting, and monitoring is an important step for the safety of the mother and fetus.
According to Ilesanmi, Solanke and Oni, (2023), one important strategy adopted in Nigeria is to encourage pregnant women to receive antenatal care from skilled personnel either in public or non-public health facilities. This is important because antenatal care is the effective entry point for the utilization of all facility-based maternal and child healthcare services such as facility delivery, postnatal care, and child immunization.
Emiru, Alene and Debelew (2020), defined antenatal care as the care that is given to a pregnant woman from the time that conception is confirmed until the beginning of labour. This is also viewed as an important point of contact between health workers and women and an opportunity for provision of health education including how to detect pregnancy complications and development of a birth plan to ensure delivery at a health facility.
The purpose of antenatal care is to monitor and improve the well-being of the mother and the foetus, for this reason the benefits of antenatal care cannot be over emphasized. Antenatal care is one of the important measures used in reducing maternal morbidity.
PREGNANCY DURATION AND CHOICE OF ANTE NATAL AND DELIVERY CARE
Moreover, antenatal is a type of preventive healthcare, with the goal of providing regular checkups that allow doctors and midwives to treat and prevent potential health problems throughout the course of the pregnancy while promoting healthy lifestyles that benefit mother and child.
The concept of antenatal care (ANC) as an effective public health strategy is credited to the dramatic improvements in maternal and prenatal outcomes witnessed in Europe in the last century, but the impact of antenatal care in these settings has not recorded the desired results.
Whereas acceptance of antenatal care in industrialized countries is near universal, in developing countries, the uptake is less, and a large proportion of women deliver outside the health care system.
About 63.6% of Nigerian mothers receive antenatal care, while trained personnel attend 41.6% of births. Consequently, high maternal mortality figures and rising prenatal mortality rates are the norm (Fawole, Okunlola & Adekunle, 2008). Nwaeze, Enabor, oluwasola and Aimakhu (2013) further reported that the proportion of Nigerian women that receive antenatal care and those that are delivered by skilled birth attendants have however remained far from acceptance.
Furthermore, The World Health Organization (WHO) reported in 2015 that around 830 women died every day from problems in pregnancy and childbirth.
Moreover, the WHO recommends that pregnant women should all receive 4 antenatal visits to spot and treat problems and give immunization. Although antenatal care is important for improving the health of the mother and the baby, Nigeria unfortunately is among the countries worst hit by maternal death challenges. The pregnancy duration and choice of ante natal and delivery care.
In addition, according to the World Health organization (WHO, 2007) report, Nigeria is the 2nd in the world after India in terms of maternal and infant deaths.
In fact, the international community has committed to improving maternal health by 2015 with millennium development goal number 5, which aims to reduce maternal mortality by three quarters and reach universal access to reproductive health care.
Without reservation, according to WHO, a maternal mortality ratio in 2013 was estimated to be 230 per 100,000 live births in developing countries to 16 per 100,000 live births in developed countries. Thus, even with this commitment, many countries have failed to implement effective programs to reduce maternal morbidity and women continue to suffer from the complications of pregnancy and childbirth.
Obviously, many countries have made targeted efforts to ensure the provision and utilization of timely and adequate ANC (Bbaale, 2011). The most common indicators of health and reproductive behavior include utilization rates of antenatal care, age when women give birth, pregnancy order and birth spacing. These factors can be modified if the services can be made accessible and affordable to women and their families.
The role of timely and adequate antenatal care visits in ensuring maternal and neonatal health cannot be underestimated. Early antenatal care visits facilitates the follow up and monitoring of fetal growth and maternal health by physicians (Bbaale, 2011).
1.2      Statement of Problem         Â
According to WHO (2000), annually, an estimated 529,000 women die from complications of pregnancy and childbirth globally. Ninety nine percent (99%) of these antenatal deaths occur in the developing countries and one percent (1%) in the developed countries.
Thus, this means that every year, close to nine (9) million women suffer some type of injury from pregnancy or childbirth that can have profound effect on their lives and families.
Since Nigeria is regarded as a developing country and one of the major sectors of the economy is health which looks to take care of the health status of the people, progress in improving antenatal care, disparities on access to antenatal care remain significant. The pregnancy duration and choice of ante natal and delivery care.
Women that are with tertiary education are likely to have antenatal care and report four or more antenatal visit as women with secondary or no education. All these are indications that despite the high antenatal coverage, some registrants may not be deriving maximum benefit from the services.
Therefore, based on these, the researcher intends to find the perception of pregnant women towards antenatal care services and their level of satisfaction.
1.3Â Â Â Â Â Â Objective of the Study
The main objective of this study is to determine the pregnancy duration and choice of ante-natal and delivery care. Specifically, the objectives objectives are:
- To determine the perception of pregnant women towards the quality of antenatal care services.
- To examine providers’ processes of care in delivering antenatal services.
- To determine the level of client satisfaction with antenatal services provided.
1.4Â Â Â Â Â Â Significance of the Study:
The findings of this study when communicated will help achieve the following:
To the pregnant women: Alleviate the complications resulting from maternal and child mortality rate.
Nurses and midwives: Assist in planning and educating pregnant women attending antenatal clinic on the importance of antenatal care services in Nigeria
Future researchers: Acts also as a guide for further studies
1.5Â Â Â Â Â Â Research Questions
- What is the perception of pregnant women towards the quality of antenatal care services?
- What are the providers’ processes of care in delivering antenatal services?
- What is the level of client satisfaction with antenatal services provided?
Operational Definition of Terms
Antenatal: before birth
Pregnancy: the condition from conception to the expulsion of the foetus
Foetus: the term used eight (8) weeks after conception until birth. The pregnancy duration and choice of ante natal and delivery care.
Client: In brief, pregnant women receiving advice and treatment in the hospital/ antenatal clinic
Perception: an overview of a pregnant woman’s thought, belief, idea and ability to understand the true meaning and impact antenatal care would make towards health, baby, family and entire populace at large.
Quality Antenatal Care: the ability of pregnant women to receive 4 or more antenatal care visits with all necessary care rendered during the visits.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter of study deals with the review of relevant literature, studies and researches previously done that is related to this study. It will be carried out under the following headings:
- Conceptual Review
- Theoretical Framework
- Empirical Review
- Summary of the Review
2.1Â Â Â Â Conceptual Review
2.1.1Â Antenatal Care
Antenatal care according to Adesokan (2014) refers to the attention, education, supervision and treatment given to the pregnant mother from the time conception is confirmed until the beginning of labour in order to ensure safe pregnancy, labour and puerperium. It is also known as prenatal care which is a type of preventive health care with a goal of providing regular checkups that allow doctors or midwives to treat and prevent potential health problems throughout the course of pregnancy while promoting health lifestyles that benefit both mother and child.During checkups, pregnant women will receive medical information over maternal physiological changes in pregnancy, biological changes and antenatal nutrition including antenatal vitamins (Adesokan, 2014).
Recommendations on management and healthy lifestyle changes are also made during regular checkups. The availability of routine antenatal care has played a part in reducing maternal death rates and miscarriages as well as birth defects, low birth weight, neonatal infections and other persuadable health problems. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that in 2015, around 830 women died everyday from problems in pregnancy and childbirth.
Only 5 of the women who died lived in high income countries, the vast of the women lived in high income countries. The WHO recommends that pregnant women should all receive four antenatal visits to spot and treat problems and give immunizations. Although antenatal care is important for improving the health of the mother and baby, many women do not receive four visits.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This section of the study shows a thoughtful and systemic estimation of the specific method with which necessary data relating to the research problem is collected and analyzed. It provides the procedural framework for the conduct of the study and helps to describe the scope of the research as well as the purpose and boundary of the study. It is discussed under the following:
- Research Design
- Area of Study
- Target Population
- Sample and Sampling Technique
- Instrument for Data Collection
- Validity of Instrument
- Reliability of Instrument Data
- Method of Data Collection and Analysis
- Ethical Consideration
Conclusion
The main objective of this study was to determine the pregnancy duration   and choice of ante-natal and delivery care. There is no doubt that the antenatal care services provided in the hospital is very good despite some observed shortcomings. Lack of enough manpower is a very big challenge to providing adequate antenatal service especially the lower cadre of staff. This is very important as everybody has a role to play at different stages in accessing care.
I am Peter Hezekiah, a Nigerian. A graduate of Economics/Education. I’m the Editor in projectboss.com.ng (A online company that deals with writing of final year project and provision of project materials of any topic to final year project students). My personal email is lawsonpeter10@gmail.com. My personal number; +2347068634102
