EC Gynaecology

This study examined socio-demographic factors that influenced antenatal care among pregnant women in Ifo local government area (LGA) in Ogun State of Nigeria. It helped to narrow the gap in contextual information that are crucial in evidence-based intervention to scale-up increased antenatal care utilization at the grassroots and communities in the country. It employed multistage sampling design to elicit health behavior information from 1350 pregnant women who participated in the study. The two dependent variables used to measure antenatal care were; the place where pregnant women delivered their first child, and the health personnel who attended to the women at the time of delivery. Results from multivariate logistic regression model showed that place of delivery of the last child of the study respondents was significantly influenced by respondent’s occupation, number of living children, and the type of house they lived-in. The outcomes of this study suggest that the skill of the health personnel who assisted in the delivery of the first child was a more prominent measure of antenatal care because it had better fit model and more statistically significant socio-demographic predictors. The skill of health personnel who assisted with the delivery of the last child of the respondent had significant causal relationships with religion, polygamy (husband had other wife), education, occupation, number of living children, and spouse’s occupation. Policy makers, program implementers, researchers, and other stakeholders who are desirous to upscale quality antenatal utilization and outcomes will find these study results informative as baseline for an effective and impactful program intervention towards achieving SDG 3 at the grassroots and communities in Ogun state and the entire country by year 2030.

 Keywords: Socio-Demographic; Antenatal Care; Pregnant Women; Place of Delivery; Skilled Assisted Delivery

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