Gestational Age At First Antenatal Attendance In Sagamu, Western Nigeria

Abstract

Objective: The importance of anatenatal care (ANC) in reducing and parental morbidity and mortality countries cannot be over – emphasized. The time of time visit for ANC is very crucial as the number of visit and the interval between the visit and delivery. This study was a carried out to determine to the gestation age first antenatal attendance at our centre and find out factors that influence it, with the aim of making suggestions that will encourage early booking for ANC

Subjects and Methods: A cross – sectional study was carried out amongst pregnant women that came to book for antenatal care at Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, Sagamu January 200 and dumber 2002.

Result: The gestation age at first anetanatal attended ace for the 2,084 pregnant women in the survey group was 21. 4 ± 5.1 weeks. The gestation age at booking amongst the primigravdae and mutiparous women was significantly higher than that of the gestation women (20.3 ± 5.2 weeks and 21.7 ± 5.8 weeks versus 16.5 ± 6.5 weeks: p < 0.05) The difference between the gestation age at first attendance for the literate subgroup (21.7± 4.2 weeks) and that for the illiterate subgroup (20. 8 ± 4.5 weeks was not significant (p> 0.05) .In 72% of cases, there was no specific reason for choosing the time of antenatal booking

Key Words: Gestatonal, age pregnant, women: Sagamu.

Nigerian Journal of Clinical Practice Vol.7(1) 2004: 1-3