Browsing by Author "Adu-Mensah, Mabel"

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    Perceived Barriers To Antenatal Care By Attendants In The Sekyere East District, Ghana.
    (2011-07-12) Adu-Mensah, Mabel
    Access to antenatal care in developing nations including Ghana and mostly in its rural settings, such as the Sekyere East District poses great challenges despite effort being made to improve on the situation. Antenatal care services are free, yet, there continue to be low patronage and inconsistency in use of the service by pregnant women. A descriptive cross-sectional study was designed to determine perceived social, geographic and cultural barriers to users of antenatal care in the Sekyere East district. It was evident that: 54% perceived geographic barriers to ANC and this was strongly associated with age (p=0.00), marital status (p=0.00) and area of residence of the respondents (p=0.00); 80% perceived economic barriers to antenatal care and this was significant in terms of their employment status (p=0.02) but not with the income earned (p=0.74); only 5% of the women used ANC 4times; and 80% of users were satisfied with the current services rendered. The study concluded that women are highly dependent on either their husbands or relatives for taking decisions on health care particularly antenatal care. It is recommended that women in the district are empowered to be financially independent. They must be provided with employable skills to enhance their chances of gaining employment. The District Assembly in collaboration with other agencies such as NGOs and Mission could develop innovations including provision of financial credits to women’s groups from the Poverty Alleviation Funds in the district could be a good intervention.