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

The logistic regression results show that the probability of having an adverse birth outcome was 37
percent less (95%CI:0.289-1.387) for women reporting first trimester as their timing of first antenatal
care visit compared with women reporting no initiation of antenatal care during their pregnancy,
however, results were not statistically significant. Women who initiating antenatal care during their
second and third trimester were 55 percent less likely (95%CI: 0.211-0.975) to have adverse birth
outcome compared with women who never initiated antenatal care during their pregnancy.
The probability of having an adverse birth outcome was 54 percent less (95%CI: 0.28 to 0.73) for
women reporting public health facilities as their place of delivery compared with women who delivered
in private health facilities. While, women delivered at home were 93 percent less likely to have adverse
birth outcome compared with women who delivered at private health facilities. The results also shows
that women of other races were 1.506 more likely to report adverse birth outcome (95%CI: 1.082 to
2.098) compared with African women. The results were significant.
4.7 Summary
This chapter has presented the findings from the 1998 Demographic and Health Survey. The results
have shown that socio-demographic factors have a significant effect on whether or not a woman will
initiate and visit the antenatal care clinic. Interestingly, number of antenatal care visits had no statistical
significant effect on birth outcomes. However, timing of first antenatal care was found to be
significantly associated with birth outcomes of the pregnant woman. In addition, delivery site and race
were found to have a statistically significant effect on birth outcomes.
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