UTILIZATION OF ANTENATAL HEALTH SERVICES & HEALTH SEEKING BEHAVIOUR AMONG POSTNATAL WOMEN OF GWALIOR CITY: A CROSS SECTIONAL STUDY

Abstract

Background: given to pregnant women in order Antenatal care (ANC) is one of the main components of maternal health to have a safe pregnancy. Delay in identication of pregnancy and lack of related health seeking behavior is the major causes of maternal morbidities and deaths. The study was conducted with the Aim: aim to evaluate the health-seeking behaviour for antenatal care services among the antenatal and postnatal mothers in a urban area of Gwalior city of Madhya Pradesh. Materials and Methods: Community based Descriptive cross-sectional research design was used to conduct. A total of 350 mothers who delivered in last one year were selected for study. 88% of the study participants had received adequate antenat Results: al care (minimum 4 antenatal checkups) but out of only 41.4% had knowledge regarding the danger signs of pregnancy and the major determinants were maternal literacy and adequate prenatal care. Regarding the health-seeking behaviour, 30.3% of them preferred district hospital as preferred place of delivery. Adequate prenatal care was found to have statistically signicant association with adequate gestational weight gain, exclusive breastfeeding, proper weaning practices and consumption of iron and folic acid supplements. , the study Conclusion: Even though there is reasonable good utilization rate of antenatal service shows the need to provide health education regarding the danger signs of pregnancy and importance of adequate prenatal care to all pregnant women and expectant mothers, to make them aware of when and how to seek medical care, which in turn could reduce the overall maternal morbidity and mortality.