Antenatal care in the capital city of Cambodia: Current situation and impact on obstetric outcome

Aims: To analyze the situation of antenatal care (ANC) attendance in the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh, and the effect of ANC attendance on delivery and newborn outcome, in order to establish a strategy for ANC in the national reproductive health program in Cambodia. Methods: This was a health facility‐based retrospective cohort study. Background factors (education, household income, and parity) were obtained through interview, and obstetric information (cesarean section, low birth‐weight, and maternal complications) were collected from the medical records of women who delivered during 1 month at all the public and private health facilities in Phnom Penh. Relations were analyzed between the number of ANC visits, background factors, and obstetric outcome. Results: A total of 1204 responses were received from Phnom Penh residents, representing 84% of the estimated number of deliveries in the city. Of these, 89% were from public health facilities. Low educational level, low household income, and multiparity were risk factors for ANC attendance. There was no association between the number of ANC attendances and obstetric outcome. Conclusions: Our study has shown that Phnom Penh residents have good access to ANC and delivery care. Low socioeconomic factors are risk factors to ANC. The number of ANC visits had no association with poor perinatal outcome, but further study on quality of ANC and its impact on obstetric outcome is needed. Within the limited resources, safe motherhood strategies need to be targeted to the rural area and to the poor in order to increase access to ANC and delivery care.