PERCEPTION OF ANTENATAL CARE SERVICES AMONG WOMEN OF CHILD BEARING AGE IN OFFA BASIC HEALTH CENTRE, KWARA STATE

Utilization of antenatal care services is generally associated with improvedmaternal and neonatal health outcomes. Antenatal care is essential for prolecting the health of women and their unborn children. The aim of this study is to determine the attitude and perception of antenatal care services among women of child bearing age in Offa basic health centre Kwara State. Adescriptive cross sectional survey was carried out among one hundred and fifty (150) respondents in Offa basic health centre Kwara State. Area ofKwara State with a semi structured self-administered questionnaire using multistage sampling technique to select respondents. Data collected were processed and analyzed using spss software program version 20.0 in calculating frequencies. This study revealed that majority of the respondent (58.7%) have knowledge of antenatal care by correctly define antenatal service as care given to pregnant women. The reason of good knowledge among the mothers might be because of health education given to them by health workers of the PHC, in this study, more than half (66.7%) of the respondents identified that pregnant women need to go for antenatal clinic without complications. This study revealed that 90% women have adequate knowledge regarding the importance of coming early for their first antenatal check-up. Also, in this study, 89.1% and 88.8% of the respondents claimed that they report early for antenatal care at the clinics and regular antenatal care improves the health of mother and child respectively.