EFFECTS OF ANTENATE AND POSTNATAL CARE SERVICE UTILIZATION ON MATERNAL PRACTICES IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Despite the international emphasis in the last few years on the need to address the unmet health needs of pregnant women and children, ANC and PNC services are still being under-utilized in sub-Saharan Africa, Nigeria inclusive. This has resultant negative effects on maternal modern family planning and childhood immunization services utilization. The large majority of women still do not make use of these services which in turn affects their use of modern family planning methods and childhood immunization services, hence the need identify the pattern and effects of ANC and PNC services utilization as well as other demographic factors on maternal family planning and childhood immunization utilization. The study was a secondary data analysis of use of modern family planning and . childhood immunization services among women who had given birth in the previous five years and utilized ANC and PNC services using 2008 NDHS data, a cross sectional survey women of reproductive age in six geo-political zones in Nigeria. The study included 18,028 women of reproductive age groups. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 15.0. Univariate analysis was employed to calculate frequencies and distributions of each variable. Chi-square test was used for bivariate analyses to test the significance of.the association between categorical variables. Logistic regression analysis was performed to identify the factors associated with the outcome variable. A'p-value < 0.05 was considered to indicate statistical significance. Results: The mean age of the women was 30.7 ±6.7 years and ranged between 15-49 years. The prevalence of ANC services utilization as at last pregnancy was 60% while that of PNC services utilization was 8.1%. After adjusting for other variables, respondents who received ANC services were about twice more likely to utilize modern family planning methods compared to those who did not [OR 1.59 (95% CI: 1.39-1.83)]. Also, respondents who received PNC services were about twice more likely to utilize modern family planning methods compared to those who did not utilize these services [OR 2.30 (95% Cl: 1.65-3.27)]. As regards childhood immunization, respondents who received ANC services were three times more likely to immunize their children compared to those who did not utilize these services [OR 3.38(95% CI: 2.96-3.86). Similarly, those respondents who received PNC services were two and a half times more likely to immunize their children compared to those who did not utilize these services [OR 2.59 (95% CI: 1.84-3.65)]. The study shows that adequate utilization of ANC and PNC services is key to utilizing maternal modern family planning and childhood immunization services. All these services are very important in promoting maternal and child health which can lead to realization of MDG 4 and 5. Therefore, awareness and public health education campaigns on these services should be reinforced.