Abstract
Objectives: To determine proportion of the women who book late for antenatal care and to assess the predictors of late booking.
Methodology: This cross-sectional study was carried out on 277 women registered at the Antenatal care clinics (ANC) in Primary Health Care Centers, Abha, Saudia Arabia using a data driven form based on records. The outcome variable was late antenatal booking (later than 12 weeks gestation). The investigated predictors were socio-demographic characteristics, parity, history of abortion and any obstetric loss in previous pregnancy. SPSS 17.0 was used for data analysis.
Results: Mean gestational age at booking was 12.2 weeks. Thirty six percent women registered late. Late booking was influenced by older age (AOR=1.44, 95% C1: 0.80-2.59), being housewife (AOR=1.20, 95 % C1: 0.66-2.18), previous history of abortion (AOR=0.85, 95 % C1: 0.47-1.52) and history of previous obstetric loss (AOR=0.66, 95% C1: 0.27-1.62). However, none of them was found to be significant. Nulliparous women were twice more likely to book later in pregnancy as compared to parous women (AOR=2.28, 95% C1: 1.20-4.31) and this difference was significant (p=0.011).
Conclusion: A high proportion of women book late in pregnancy. Socio-demographic and obstetric factors influence initiation of antenatal care. These factors should be addressed in depth to look for reasons of late booking in order to design locally appropriate interventions to encourage women to engage early with antenatal care services.