Prevalence of late antenatal care booking among pregnant women attending public health facilities of Kigamboni Municipality in Dar es Salaam region, Tanzania

Abstract

Background: Good care during pregnancy is important for the health of mothers and development of the unborn baby. The study determined the prevalence and factors associated with late ANC booking among pregnant women at health facilities in Kigamboni Municipality in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
 Methods: This was an analytical cross-sectional study among pregnant women attending ANC services during second and third trimester in the selected health facilities. The study recruited 204 through convenient sampling. Multi-stage cluster sampling was used to select health facilities. A Standardised questionnaire was used to collect information through face-to-face interviews. Data was analysed using SPSS version 25.0. Proportions were used to estimate the magnitude of late ANC booking while bivariate and multivariate analyses were performed to determine factors associated with the magnitude of late ANC booking.
 Results: Late ANC bookings were high 174 (85.3%) among pregnant women who attended clinic week 13 and later compared to those who attended earlier than 13 weeks 30 (14.7%). Factors associated with likelihood for late ANC booking during the initial visit included tertiary education [AOR= 10.174, 95%CI: 1.002-103.301] and primigravida [AOR=0.101, 95%CI: 0.170-0.605].
 Conclusion: Majority of the pregnant women started ANC later than the recommended time. Health education provision at all community levels on the advantages and disadvantages of early and late ANC booking respectively should be strengthened.
 Keywords: Pregnant women; ANC; booking; parity; education.

Editor’s choice: Covid-19 and HIV are still very much with us

“…The next NCDs are on Parkinson's disease 65 , NCD knowledge 66 and others 67 - 69 . The next section deals with sexual and reproductive health issues: late antenatal booking in Tanzania 70 , pregnancy outcome of in vitro fertilization 71 ; caesarian section births 72 - 73 .…”