Antenatal care: a comparison of demographic and obstetric characteristics of early and late attenders in the Niger Delta, Nigeria

The utilization of modern antenatal care is poor in most parts of Nigeria and studies indicate that the majority of those who present for antenatal care do so late. This was a retrospective study involving 303 consecutively booked pregnant women over a 6-month period (March 1 to August 31, 2004) in a suburban tertiary hospital practice. The objectives were to determine the incidence of late booking for antenatal care and to compare the demographic and obstetric characteristics of women who booked late with those who booked early for antenatal care. The Fisher's exact test, odds ratio, and the 95% confidence interval were used for statistical analysis. Most (79.9%) of the women booked late for antenatal care. It was found that age, parity, level of education, social class, previous fetal loss, and previous obstetric complications did not differ significantly between women who booked early and those who booked late. The majority of the study population booked late for antenatal care. Socio-demographic and obstetric factors do not appear to be responsible for late utilization of antenatal care in the Niger Delta, Nigeria. Further studies are needed to explore the contribution of cultural factors to late presentation for antenatal care. Community-based health education programs on the importance of early presentation for antenatal care need to be put in place to address the anomaly of late utilization of antenatal care in Nigerian women.