ATTITUDE TOWARDS ANTENATAL CARE SERVICES AMONG PREGNANT WOMEN ATTENDING TORORO GENERAL HOSPITAL, TORORO DISTRICT.

Abstract

Background

Pregnant women’s attitudes towards ANC are influenced by personal beliefs, past experiences, and societal norms. The study aimed to identify attitudes towards antenatal care services among pregnant women attending Tororo General Hospital, Tororo district.

Methodology

A descriptive cross-sectional study, with a sample size of 50 respondents, employed quantitative methods. The study employed probability sampling, specifically a simple random sampling technique.

 Results

The majority (88%) of the respondents were married, while the minority (12%) were living a single life. The majority (76%) reported that the quality of services rendered during antenatal care was good,18% reported that the services were excellent, while only 6% reported fair-quality services, and none of the mothers reported poor-quality services. (68%) reported that their partners\families somewhat supported them in attending Antenatal Care,30% of them reported very supportive family\partners while only 2% reported neutral support, however, none of them reported being unsupported or very unsupportive. (56%) Of the women had financial constraints as a major reason for them not attending ANC,20% reported of lack of transport,18% reported long distances from the health Centre 4% reported that their culture perceives TBAs to be more knowledgeable than the professional health care workers. Only 2% reported to have ever experienced a negative encounter with the health workers.

Conclusion

The overall attitude towards antenatal care was also good as most of the respondents showed a positive attitude towards ANC.

 Recommendation

The MOH, through continuous medical education, should also increase the training of health service providers in order to ensure continuity in community sensitization, organizing education programs through radios and televisions as well as social media.