Clients’ Satisfaction with Antenatal Care Services at Pumwani Maternity Hospital and NCCK Huruma Community Clinic

Abstract

Despite the MOH policies on the right to safe motherhood, right to access information and quality services by women throughout pregnancy, childbirth and post-natal period, accessibility and satisfaction with ANC services by pregnant mothers remain a challenge. Client satisfaction with antenatal care services affects accessibility to these services by pregnant women, which in turn affects the outcomes of pregnancy. Client’s concerns, suggestions, desires and expectations of health care services need to be seriously examined due to their potential influence on utilization of health services and satisfaction. This was a descriptive cross-sectional study which sought to determine antenatal clients’ satisfaction with antenatal care services among mothers attending antenatal clinic at Pumwani Maternity Hospital and N.C.C.K Huruma community clinic. The study targeted pregnant women aged between 18-49 years seeking antenatal services in both clinics. Simple random sampling technique was used to recruit the subjects. Fischer’s formula was applied to calculate a sample size of 265 antenatal mothers. Structured and semi-structured questionnaires were used to collect quantitative data. Bivariate analysis of data was done using SPSS Version 21software; cross-tabulation was done to obtain association between variables and null hypothesis was tested using Chi-square. Clients portrayed high levels of overall satisfaction with services at 92.8% (60.6% satisfied and 32.2% very satisfied). However, some of the reasons given for dissatisfaction were long waiting time, poor health workers support and high cost of services. Satisfaction was influenced by the type of facility attended i.e. public or Faith-based and a significant association was observed between type of facility and satisfaction levels (p-value 0.000). Age and level of education had no association with antenatal clients’ satisfaction with services (p-value 0.254 and 0.292 respectively). Family income was not seen to influence satisfaction (p-value 0.503). Waiting time for services (p-value 0.000) and health worker support (p-value 0.000) played a significant role in clients’ satisfaction. There was a statistically significant difference in the level of antenatal clients’ satisfaction with services between Pumwani Maternity Hospital clinic and N.C.C.K Huruma clinic. As much as the overall satisfaction with services was high, there is need to address reasons for dissatisfaction with antenatal services in order to increase antenatal clinic attendance, improve pregnancy outcomes and reduce maternal mortality rates.