Utilization of antenatal care services in a rural area of Nalgonda district, Telangana state, India

Background: Majority of maternal deaths can be prevented through appropriate maternal health services during antenatal, natal and post natal period Reasons for non-utilization of Antenatal health services could be due to various social, cultural and economic factors. Therefore, keeping this in view, this study was conducted to assess the utilization pattern of antenatal services by mothers, the facilitators of utilization of services.Methods: It is a Community based cross sectional study conducted in Cherlapally and villages around, which constitute the rural field practice area of Department of SPM, Kamineni Institute of Medical Sciences, Narketpally telangana. This study was conducted from September 2012-October 2014. A pre-designed and pre-tested questionaire was used to collect the data. The data was compiled and analyzed using SPSS version 19.Results: Majority (91.5%) of the mothers had three or more than three antenatal visits. Antenatal visits less than 3 was seen in only 8.5% of mothers. Mothers who took minimum of 2 tetanus toxoid injections were 93.6%. But only 37.7% of the mothers consumed 100 IFA tablets. Majority (68.6%) of the mothers received antenatal care from doctor and 22.9% of mothers from both doctor and ANM.Conclusions: Majority of the mothers received antenatal care from private health facility followed by government health facilities. Better care and advice from health staff was the prime determinant for utilization.