an examination of the role of antenatal care attendance in ...

likely to make decisions about their health. Assuming that women have knowledge of the benefits of
seeking health care, they are also more likely to seek help if they have means to do so.
Having said that, it is important to note that basic health care in South Africa is free for pregnant
women and children under 5 years. However, there are some associated costs that women need in order
to access the health facility, for example, transport fees to and from the clinic. As a result, women
residing in rural areas, where health care facilities are likely to be far from their homesteads, are likely
to lack enough income to attend the clinic, regardless of the knowledge of importance of seeking health
care during pregnancy. In contrast, McCray (2005) found that asset ownership was not associated with
utilisation of services in northern KwaZulu-Natal. However, it is important to note that interpreting
these results must be done with cautiousness as small sample size was used (314 women) for this study.
Nielsen et al. (2001) also supported the above findings in a study conducted in South India. The authors
indicate that cash income; type of house and other indicators of wealth of the household were not
significantly associated with the use of antenatal care services. Women who were poor had at least five
antenatal visits, which was not very different from those who were considered well off.
2.4.2 Partner characteristics
Literature shows that women with husbands of higher socio-economic status are more likely to seek
treatment from a doctor or a nurse as opposed to women with husbands of lower socio-economic status.
Educated husbands are more likely to appreciate the importance of health care and thus may provide
support and also, the means for their partners to visit the antenatal care facilities frequently (Shariff and
Singh 2002).
The result from a study conducted in India indicated that having a husband with matriculation
increased the probability of receiving pre and post natal care by about 10 percent and 8 percent,
respectively (Shariff and Singh 2002). Shariff and Singh (2002) argue that the magnitude of the effect
of husband's education indicates that education affects utilisation directly through preferences and
through increased household income. In another study conducted in the district of Tamil Nadu in India,
women married to husbands with more than five years of schooling were likely to have the
recommended number of antenatal care visits (Nielsen et al. 2001).
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