The Utilization Level of Antenatal Care Services Among Pregnant Women in Dharkenley District of Mogadishu

Abstract

The study investigates the utilization level of ANC services among pregnant women in Dharkenley district in Mogadishu. The main objective which guided the study was; to determine the causes of low utilization level of ANC services among pregnant women in Dharkenley district; to identify complications related to low utilization of ANC service among pregnant women in Dharkenley district and to increase awareness of pregnant women to utilize antenatal care services in Dharkenley district of Mogadishu. The study adopted cross sectional descriptive design using both qualitative and quantitative approach. The study used a purposively sampling of non-probability method to collect a data from 60 respondents from three health center in the study area. The majority of the respondents of this study was aged between the 15-24 years of age, had no education or at least completed primary education. While most of the pregnant women who had atleast four ANC visits were primipara women, because primipara women may be afraid of pregnancy complications and outcomes since they have had no prior delivery experience. Women who did not attend the required number of ANC services responded that 50% did not know they had to attend several times, while 33% did not attend antenatal care service because of no time to attend and only 16% said health facility is too far. The study concludes that the majority of the women knew that low ANC utilization could cause pregnancy complications such as (30%) infections, 23% anemia and only 21% neonatal mortality.