Addressing Maternal Health Challenges: A KAP Study On Antenatal Care In Rural Punjab, Pakistan

Abstract

Although receiving greater attention, optimum maternal health remains a greater challenge in developing countries like Pakistan. Despite the improvement in maternal health care services, the mother and child health in rural areas is still a question in Pakistan. Maternal and child mortality rates are still high in Pakistan. There is a consensus that the use of maternal health care services reduces maternal and child mortality and improves the reproductive health of women. Hence, there is still a need to explore the factors affecting the utilization of maternal health care services in rural areas of Punjab, Pakistan. Three districts i.e. Rawalpindi, Dera Ghazi khan, and Nanakana Sahib were selected through simple random sampling techniques. Study respondents were the mothers aged from 15-49 years having their last baby 2 years old before the survey. The size of the sample (414) was fixed using the equal allocation method. A data was collected through the well-structured interview schedule and analyzed through SPSS. It was found that a huge majority of the respondents had knowledge about the antenatal care services. It was found that 30.2 percent of the participants know about the recommended visits for ANC. About 34 % of participants had knowledge regarding the timing of ANC visits recommended by the health department. A significant proportion (69.3%) of the participants had thought that pregnant women should start the visit to health clinics at their 1st trimester (1-3rd month). Majority of the participants perceived that a great change in intake of diet should be during pregnancy. The present study stresses the need to evaluate the Knowledge, Attitude and Practices regarding ANC to improve the maternal and neonatal health outcomes.