Determinants of Antenatal Care Attendance among Teenage Mothers Attending Child Welfare Clinic in Ashaiman Municipality

Abstract

Background: In Ghana, the major causes of maternal mortality among women of reproductive age are pregnancy and child birth . Despite strategies and interventions that prioritize maternal health, several women still do not receive the recommended maternal health care services, including antenatal care (ANC) services. Teenage mothers have particularly been noted to have lower rates of ANC attendance in many places in Ghana. At the same time, few studies have been done in places like Ashiaman municipality to determine the factors influencing ANC attendance among teenage mothers at Ashiaman municipality.Main reason for conducting the study is to determine factors influencing ANC attendance among teenage mothers at child welfare clinic at Ashaiman municipality. Methods. Across-sectional population-based study was carried out at Ashaiman with 271 randomly selected teenage mothers at child welfare clinic who have children age 0-12months. Data was collected using structured questionnaire. Participants characteristic were described with the use of Descriptive statistics such as frequency and percentage distribution. Factors influencing ANC attendance among teenage mothers attending child welfare clinic were also examined by using statistical like chi-square and logistic regression. A level of 95% confidence was observe and a P-value of < 0.05 was also used to test for the statistically significant. The data was analyzed using STATA Version 15. Results: 82.7% of the participants attended ANC for four times during their last pregnancy before this study which indicate that ANC attendance was relatively high: ANC attendance was more prevalent among Christians and also increased with age. After adjusting for theoretically relevant potential confounders, factors that independently predicted ANC attendance were birth order, family type, and respondents’ perception about punctuality of health staff to work. Conclusion: The study suggests that unless the above factors are addressed, the benefits of Ghana’s free healthcare services may not be realized and maternal mortality may be difficult to address especially among teenage mothers. Therefore, efforts should be directed at educating teenagers about the importance of ANC and supporting some to access and use ANC services provided by skilled providers in health facilities.