Background: Complications during pregnancy and delivery are well documented and can be prevented and managed effectively especially with adequate antenatal care. Women in urban slums represent a marginalized community and improving health care utilization in this group remains a challenge. Objective: To study existing antenatal care practices and study the factors associated with it among women of reproductive age group in urban slums of Nanded city. Methods: This is a community based cross sectional descriptive study carried out from March 2010 to April 2011 in which 400 women reporting delivery in past two years were selected using Probability Proportionate Sampling. Data on Sociodemographic factors and different components of antennal care were collected using a Semi structured questionnaire. Analysis was done using chi square test. Results: Among the 400 women included in the study, coverage of full Antenatal care (ANC) services was reported by 80 (20%) respondents. While 381 (95%) women were immunized with Tetanus Toxoid, only 98 (25%) women had consumed 100 or more Iron and Folic acid tablets, 315 (79%) women had three or more antenatal check-ups and 213 (53%) had registered themselves in first trimester of pregnancy. There was significant association between full antenatal care and woman’s education, husband’s education and occupation, religion and socio-economic status of family (<0.05). Conclusion: There is a need to improve the utilization of full antenatal care package among women in urban slums with a special focus on early registration and IFA consumption. Sociodemographic variables of reproductive age group women have impact on utilization of antenatal care services. The risk factors identified for low antenatal care service utilization were low educational status of women and their husbands and low socioeconomic status. Special efforts should be made to motivate this group for antenatal care service utilization
Underutilization of the recommended frequency of focused antenatal care services in Northwest Ethiopia: Using Andersen's healthcare service utilization model approach
