RESEARCH ARTICLE
Attitudes of Pregnant Women Towards Antenatal Care Services Provided in Primary Health Care Facilities of Mbombela Municipality, Mpumalanga Province, South Africa
Lucia Drigo1, Masane Luvhengo2, Rachel T. Lebese2, Lufuno Makhado3, *
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2020Volume: 13
First Page: 569
Last Page: 575
Publisher ID: TOPHJ-13-569
DOI: 10.2174/1874944502013010569
Article History:
Received Date: 11/3/2020Revision Received Date: 28/7/2020
Acceptance Date: 30/8/2020
Electronic publication date: 26/10/2020
Collection year: 2020
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Background:
Pregnant woman’s personal experience of antenatal care services can either be positive or negative; however, knowledge and experience appear to be of paramount importance in shaping their attitudes towards any healthcare-related services. This implies that women's experience of antenatal care services may affect their decision for seeking antenatal care in their present pregnancy, which can lead them to delay seeking care.
Purpose:
This study sought to explore the attitudes of pregnant women towards antenatal care services provided in primary health care facilities of Mbombela Municipality, Mpumalanga Province, South Africa.
Methods:
A qualitative exploratory descriptive study design was used for this study. Purposive sampling technique was used to sample pregnant women who fail to attend antenatal services as expected. Data were collected through face to face unstructured in-depth interview. A total of eighteen pregnant women participated in the study until data saturation. Data were analysed using Tech’s method of analysis.
Results:
Results revealed the following theme and sub-themes: Attitudes of pregnant women related to individual perceptions, perceived barriers to utilizing antenatal care services,’ attitudes of healthcare providers, long waiting times in healthcare facilities, lack privacy and confidentiality in healthcare facilities and attitudes of pregnant women related to attendance of antenatal services.
Conclusion:
Attitudes of pregnant women about antenatal care are shaped by their knowledge and previous encounters with the health care services that they had previously received. It is therefore important to provide women-friendly services. It is recommended that health education regarding the importance of antenatal care services must be given to all women daily in the waiting areas of each primary health care facilities, thus, the healthcare providers should promote the active participation of pregnant women during the health education sessions and provide opportunities to ask questions.
