Evaluation of Antenatal Care, Maternal and Infant Health, Lang Suan District, Chumporn Province

Abstract

Objectives : To evaluated the context, input, processes, performance outcome, compared health outcomes of pregnant women who got completed and inadequate ANC with health status of mothers and infants, as well as, looked for causes of delayed and inadequate ANC.

Method : The sample groups were 1) 14 personnel providing ANC antenatal services which were selected by purposive sampling, 2) 208 Thai pregnant women who came for ANC at Lang Suan Hospital, all Tumbol Health Promoting Hospitals, and doctor's clinics in Lang Suan district, and came to birth at Lang Suan Hospital which were selected by systematic random sampling. Research instruments were questionnaire and pregnancy and health status record form. Data was collected during February – April 2021, then analyzed by descriptive statistics, Chi-square test / Fisher’s Exact Test / Independent t-test

Result : 72.1% of pregnant women attended 1st ANC within 12 weeks, and 68.8% attended to complete ANC (5 times). After childbirth, 94.7% and 68.4% of mothers and Infants were healthy. The group of pregnant women who did not complete ANC had a statistically significantly higher rate of abnormally healthy babies than the group who completed ANC (p = 0.036), but it did not make pregnant women's health and the birth weight was different (P-value > 0.05). The most common causes of inadequate ANC were not know how many times should they go for ANC and did not know that they were pregnant. For most common causes of delayed ANC were not know that they were pregnant and did not know when should ANC be started.

Conclusion : The 1st ANC within 12 weeks and the completed ANC (5 times) at Lang Suan District were not met the criteria set by the Ministry of Pubic Health. Therefore, the ANC system should be developed to be efficient and effective.