Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to examine the maternal health care seeking behaviour and
pregnancy outcome of pregnant women in two rural communities in Enugu State. The objectives of study were to: (i) determine the gestational age at which pregnant women book for Antenatal Care(ANC) in Udi and Abiacommunities, (ii)determine how often pregnant women attend Antenatal Care(ANC)during the third trimester, (iii) ascertain the facilities utilized by pregnant women with complications for care and (iv) ascertain their pregnancy outcome. Cross-sectional survey design was adopted for the study. A sample size of 207 respondents was drawn from a population of 586 pregnant women. The instrument for data collection was the researcherdeveloped questionnaire that was used as an interview guide. Observation guide was also used to corroborate the findings of the questionnaire. The design of the study was descriptive crosssectional survey. Convenience sampling was used to select a sample size of 207 respondents from a population of 586 pregnant women. Collected data wereanalysed using descriptiven statistics of frequencies and percentages. Chi-square was used to test for significant association at significancelevel of 0.05. Major findings show that most of the respondents (79.7%) booked for ANC during the first trimester. On frequency of ANC during the third trimester, 81.1% maintained weekly attendance while 100% of the respondents with complications accessed care from health facilities especially the general hospital under skilled healthcare providers. On pregnancy outcome, 84.5% of the babies cried vigorously at birth and 0.5% did not cry at all. On maternal delivery outcome, 83.1% were strong to take care of self and baby after delivery. There was no significant association (p > 0.05) between the respondents’ demographic variables (age and educational status) and their healthcare seeking behaviour. There was no significant association (p > 0.05) between maternal healthcare seeking behaviour and mothers’ delivery outcome (women that were strong to take care of self and baby and those that were weak to take care of self and baby after delivery). There was significant association (p < 0.05) between maternal healthcare seeking behaviour and babies’ birth outcome (number of babies that cried vigorously at birth and thosethat did not cry at all).
