Antenatal Care Services Utilization among the Antenatal and Postnatal Women in a Rural Area of South India: A Cross-Sectional Study

Introduction: Timely and quality antenatal care is a crucial determinant towards the prevention of maternal mortality, which is a significant developmental goal for developing countries, which contributes to more than 99% of maternal deaths worldwide. However, the lack of equitable access to quality ANC is a major challenge in resource-limited settings, particularly in developing countries like India. Objectives: To assess the utilization rates of antenatal care services among antenatal women and postnatal women and to determine the factors responsible forunder or non-utilization of antenatal care services (ANC). Method: The present study was conducted for a period offour months among antenatal and postnatal women in a rural area of South India. All antenatal and postnatal women except those who were not willing to participate and those who had MTP/abortion during the present pregnancy were included for the study. A pre tested semi structured questionnaire was used for collecting information regarding ANC utilization. Data was entered in Microsoft Excel and analyzed for descriptive and inferential statistics. Results: A total of 175 (125 antenatal and 50 postnatal) women were interviewed. Among them, 90.3% (92% antenatal and 86% postnatal) women had completely utilized ANC services. Among the postnatal women, those who had completely utilized ANC services, 11.6% had complications at the time of their delivery and those who had incompletely utilized ANC services, 57.1% had complications.The difference was found to be statistically significant (p