Abstract
Utilization of antenatal care by mothers is one of the surest ways of reducing
maternal morbidity and mortality due to the fact that it leads to early
detection and treatment of negative maternal outcomes. The study
investigated utilization of antenatal health care (ANC) services among women
of child-bearing age in Ebonyi State, Nigeria. Specifically it determined
antenatal services utilized, and factors that influence the use of antenatal care.
Population of the study Questionnaire was used for data collection on 400
mothers of childbearing age (15-49 years) who were selected using multi-stage
sampling procedure. Data were analyzed using frequency and chi-square at
0.05 level of significance. The study was guided by one specific objective, one
research question and two hypotheses. Findings show that mothers utilized
antenatal services in varying proportions such as 86.8% health and nutrition
education; 54.3% urine test; 73.0% HIV test; 88.5% physical examination; 27.0%
ultrasound; 75.3% measuring of height; 91% measuring weight; 94% tetanus
injection; 93.8% routine drugs; 96% blood pressure measurement, and 61.3%
malaria preventive. Factors such as Location and education significantly
influenced ANC utilization. It recommended that government should make
effort to formulate policies that enhance the utilization of ultrasound aspect of
antenatal care services and continuous public health enlightenment by
stakeholders.