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MATERNAL AND CHILD HEALTH 10
This chapter presents findings on four areas of importance to maternal and child health:
antenatal, delivery, and postnatal care; characteristics of the newborn; vaccination coverage; and
common childhood illnesses and their treatment. This information, in combination with data on
mortality, is useful in formulating programs and policies to improve maternal and child health services.
10.1 ANTENATAL CARE
The health care that a mother receives during pregnancy and at the time of delivery is important
for the survival and well-being of both the mother and the child. Antenatal care (ANC) coverage is
described according to the type of provider, number of ANC visits, stage of pregnancy at the time of the
first and last visits, and number of visits, as well as services and information provided during ANC,
including whether tetanus toxoid vaccinations were received. Information on ANC coverage was
obtained from women who had a birth in the five years preceding the survey. For women with two or
more live births during the five-year period, data refer to the most recent birth only.
Table 10.1 and Figure 10.1 show the percent distribution of mothers in the five years preceding
the survey by source of antenatal care received during pregnancy, according to selected characteristics.
Women were asked to report on all persons seen for antenatal care for the last birth. However, for the
purpose of presenting the results, only the provider with the highest qualification is considered if women
had seen more than one provider. Twenty-seven percent of mothers received antenatal care from health
professionals (doctor, nurse, midwife) for their most recent birth in the five years preceding the survey,
and less than 1 percent of mothers received antenatal care from traditional birth attendants (trained and
untrained). Nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of mothers received no antenatal care for births in the
preceding five years.
Differences in antenatal care between age groups of women are negligible. Differences by birth
order are more pronounced. Mothers are more likely to receive care from a health professional for first
births (32 percent) than for births of order six and higher (21 percent).
There are large differences in the use of antenatal care services between urban and rural women.
In urban areas, health professionals provided antenatal care for 67 percent of mothers, whereas they
provided care for only 22 percent of mothers in rural areas. Additionally, in rural areas, more than
three-quarters of mothers (78 percent) received no antenatal care at all, compared with 32 percent in
urban areas.
Regional differences in the source of antenatal care are quite significant; 83 percent of mothers
in Addis Ababa received antenatal care from a health professional, compared with less than one in five
mothers in the Somali and Amhara regions. The percentage of mothers who received no antenatal care
is the highest in the Somali and Amhara regions (84 and 81 percent, respectively) and the lowest in
Addis Ababa (17 percent).
Maternal and Child Health * 111