WORLD JOURNAL OF ADVANCE
HEALTHCARE RESEARCH

Kanikwu Phoebe Nwamaka and *Chiejina Edith Nkechi

ABSTRACT

Background: Pregnant women’s experiences with the care they receive influence their perceptions and compliance with the care. Assessing Pregnant women’s perception of the care they receive and their satisfaction with the care, can expose the lapses in the quality of antenatal services and necessitate improvement in the services provided by the midwives. Objectives: The objectives of this study were to determine the perception of pregnant women about the equitability, efficiency and people-centeredness of the antenatal services provided by midwives, and the associations between their perceptions and satisfaction with the services in government-owned health care facilities in South-South, Nigeria. Materials and Methods: The study was a cross sectional survey research design carried out in the antenatal clinics of 30 government-owned health facilities in the South-South geopolitical zone of Nigeria. A total of 1500 respondents were selected for the study using multi-stage sampling technique. Questionnaire on Equitability, Efficiency and People-Centeredness of the Antenatal Services Provided by Midwives and Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire were the instruments used for data collection. The reliability of the instruments were established through the test-retest method using Cronbach’s Alpha which yielded co-efficients of 0.806 and 0.709 respectively. Data collected were analyzed using frequencies, percentages, mean and Factorial Analysis of Variance to determine the objectives of the study. Results: The result showed means of 3.67±1.19, 3.89±0.98, 3.52±1.24, for pregnant women’s perceived equitability, efficiency and people-centeredness respectively of the antenatal services provided by midwives. There were significant associations between the satisfaction expressed by pregnant women and their perceived equitability (F = 25.267, p-value=0.000), perceived efficiency (F = 8.501, p-value = 0.000) and perceived people-centeredness (F= 18.763,p-value= 0.000) of antenatal services provided by midwives. Conclusion: Pregnant women had positive perception about the equitability, efficiency and people-centeredness of the antenatal services provided by midwives in health care facilities in South-South Nigeria. Midwives in government-owned health care facilities should organize regular forum with their clients to get feedback from pregnant women regarding their perceptions of the antenatal services provided by midwives.

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