Knowledge of Maternal and Child Health Services Among Women of Child Bearing Age in Nasarawa State, Nigeria

Abstract

Health care system aiming to reduce pregnancy and child related morbidity and mortality should focus on maternal and child health services utilization. This study examined knowledge of Maternal and Child Health Services (MCHS) among women of child bearing age in Nasarawa State, Nigeria. A multi-stage systematic random sampling technique was adopted and a pre-tested structured questionnaire was administered to 680 representative respondents from three local government areas. The data was analyzed using simple descriptive statistics. Medical experts (75.4%) and the radio (46.3%) were identified as the most common source of information on MCHS and awareness campaigns among the respondents. Most women attend Antenatal Care (ANC) to check the health status of fetus and mother (69.3%). A total of 31.3% of the mothers began ANC visit within 4-6 months while those that visited four (4) times and above accounted for 68.4%. The study established that participants had good knowledge of the number of times expected for ANC visit, but had low level of awareness on the gestational age to start ANC. Findings also revealed that exposure of the study participants to MCHS campaign messages from the different sources to a large extent impacted on their knowledge of antenatal care visit and reason for the visit in a health facility in many ways. There is enough evidence to suggest that media campaigns are not a major source of disseminating information on MCHS to the public in the study area, since 75.4% of the respondents identified medical experts as their main source of information about the services. The provision of information on MCHS through the radio is recommended because radio can be listened to by several people at same time and, radio listening habit is increasingly becoming common place on mobile platforms.