KNOWLEDGE AND UTILIZATION OF PRECONCEPTION CARE AMONG WOMEN OF CHILDBEARING AGE IN ADEOYO HOSPITAL, IBADAN (A PRELIMINARY STUDY)
Background: Care during the antenatal period has been the focus of improving maternal health and reproductive outcomes. Yet, evidences have shown that antenatal care alone is not enough. Initiating care before conception or preconception care (PCC) could be effective to further improve maternal health and reproductive outcomes. This study investigated the level of awareness, understanding and the utilization of components of preconception care among women of childbearing age in Adeoyo Maternity Hospital, Ibadan. The study constitutes a baseline attempt at generating information and gaps in this study area.
Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional design was used for the study; purposive sampling technique was used to select 103 respondents, out of the 240 respondents that attended the clinic in that week. The participants were pregnant women attending antenatal clinic in Adeoyo Maternity Teaching Hospital who consented to participate in the study. A structured self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics.
Results: Fifty-six 56 (54.4%) of the respondents have not heard about preconception care. Only, 26 (25.2%) of the respondents were able to define preconception care as the care given to a woman before pregnancy. Majority, 77 (74.8%) respondents claimed not to have utilized PCC. Even among those who have heard about preconception care, only 26 (25.2%) respondents claimed to have utilized it. Up to, 38 (36.9%) of the respondents were unable to identify available components.
Conclusion: The study has shown that awareness, knowledge and utilization of available preconception care components is quite low among respondents. The implications of these findings in low resource settings like Nigeria include the need for massive awareness and educational intervention and establishment of functional PCC units in our hospital and MCH settings, to enhance positive outcomes. Further research will also be needed in future to assess the impact of such interventions and how to sustain potential benefits.