No abstract

Objective Despite the fact that quality antenatal care is one of the essential aspects in maternal and child health care, the current perceived quality and associated factors of this service is not well acknowledged in Ethiopia. This study was therefore undertaken to assess focused antenatal care service utilization and associated factors in western Ethiopia. Result This study has measured the utilization of focused antenatal care services in terms of regularity of frequency of attendance, initiation time and completeness of the components. In about 19.8% of mothers attendance was irregular. While than three-fourths 330 (78.6%) started in the second trimester, and 42 (10%) of them commenced in the third trimester. The essential components of the services like counseling on nutrition, family planning, and HIV/AIDS were respectively missing in 1.9%, 8.3% and 7.4% of clients. Providing and receiving quality ANC was found to have emanated from different factors which were related to mothers, providers and facilities. Although the overall ANC utilization noticed deceivingly seems satisfactory, it was not fully comprehensive, focused and not to its current standard. Further efforts in terms of effective planning, monitoring and evaluation activities on the service are therefore strongly recommended.

Background Iron deficiency is the world's highly prevalent micronutrient deficiency, affecting more than 30% of the global population. Pregnant women commonly use iron folic acid (IFA) supplements to prevent iron deficiency, anemia and neural tube anomalies during gestation. IFA supplementation is a crucial component of antenatal care (ANC) in Ethiopia, although its efficacy and success have been hindered primarily by the non-compliance seen among women who are pregnant. Despite this, factors that determine the compliance of women to the recommended IFA supplementation are not well studied. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the predictors of compliance with IFA supplementation among pregnant women attending ANC. Method An institutional-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 302 pregnant women from March 20 – April 5, 2021. Based on the stated number of IFA pills consumed in the seven days prior to the survey, compliance with IFA supplementation was assessed. Systematic random sampling technique was used to select the study subjects. Face-to-face interviews were used to gather data using a pretested and structured questionnaire. Data were entered into epi-data and exported to SPSS for analysis. Binary logistic regression model was used and variables with a P-value < 0.25 in a bivariate analysis were included in multivariable logistic regression to identify independent predictors of compliance with IFA. Statistically significant was declared at P-value of 0.05 or lower. Result The compliance with Iron folic acid supplementation was 47.0% (95% CI: 43.1–51.2). Educational status of the women (AOR = 4.42; 95% CI: 1.32, 13.50), distance of ≤ 4km to health facility (AOR = 2.46; 95% CI: 1.32, 4.57), place of antenatal care follow-up (AOR = 2.23; 95%CI: 1.17, 4.51), family size (AOR = 4.99; 95% CI:2.43, 10.24) and source of information (AOR = 5.52; 95%CI: 1.30, 23.54) were found to be independent predictors of pregnant women’s compliance with IFA supplementation. Conclusion Less than half of the pregnant women were compliant with iron folic acid utilization. Generally, educational status, distance to the health facility, family size, and source of information were the major reasons for compliance with iron folic acid utilization.