Barriers and enabling factors to antenatal clinic attendance among pregnant women: A cross-sectional assessment at Federal Medical Center Asaba Delta State Nigeria

Increase antenatal care contact strengthen the chances of early identification of maternal and foetal risk; hence, early intervention to promote mother and child safety. This study identifies barriers and enabling factors to antenatal clinic attendance among pregnant women in FMC, Asaba Delta State, Nigeria. A descriptive cross-sectional study design was adopted, and a sample size of 300 pregnant women was employed in the study. A validated self-structured questionnaire was used for data collection. The reliability of the instrument was established through the Cronbach alpha method, which yielded 0.70. Data were analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS version 25). Descriptive and inferential statistics were used, and the significance level was set at 0.05. The result shows that several barriers were identified with the presence of co-wives (mean = 3.1) and paternal education (mean = 3.1) being the most implicated with an overall mean of 2.93. The most enabling factors for ANC in this study were health insurance/user-free exemption (mean = 3.3), involvement in decision-making (mean = 3.1), husband/partner's approval (mean = 3.3), and supportive spouse (mean = 3.2), with a general mean of 2.95. ANC attendance was significantly associated with age and parity and insignificantly associated with education. In conclusion, to improve ANC attendance, targeted education, awareness programs and health insurance as enabler be implemented, emphasising the importance of ANC and addressing socio-economic, and cultural barriers.