Clients' assessment of antenatal care at the University Of Nigeria teaching hospital, Enugu, Eastern Nigeria

Abstract

Four hundred and seventy-one consecutive antenatal mothers were interviewed to obtain their assessment of the antenatal care services rendered at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu. Their overall rating of the services was: very good (36.3%); good (61.1%); bad (0%) very bad (0%); and mixed (2.5%). Their overall rating of the attitude of antenatal clinic personnel was good. Up to 61.1% of the respondents considered the services in the teaching hospital to be better than obtained in other hospitals in Enugu while the rest held a contrary view. Favourable aspects of the care included the health talk which 92.4% of the women attended and which 84.7% of them found useful. Aspects of care disliked by the mothers included the long waiting time, the costly nature of the services, examination in the presence of medical students and the prescription of individual haematinics instead of the more costly but single dose alternatives. It was concluded that frequent auditing of antenatal services is necessary to highlight areas requiring improvement.

Keywords

• assessment
• antenatal care
• clients
• enugu
• nigeria