Assessment of Timing of First Antenatal Care Visit and Associated Factors Health Institutions, Southern Ethiopia

Introduction: The new focused antenatal care model recognizes that every pregnant woman is at risk for complications and four antenatal care visits are recommended for most pregnant women; the first one being early in the first trimester. When pregnant women attend antenatal care late they miss the cares being provided in the first 16 weeks. Therefore it is important to assess timing of first antenatal care visit and identify associated factors for late coming for the sake of intervention. Methods: Institutional based cross-sectional study was conducted among 362 randomly selected pregnant women from April to June 2014 in Dilla town, Southern Ethiopia. The data had been entered in to Epi Info version 7 and analyzed through SPSS version 20. Bivariate analysis was run to look for the association between dependent and explanatory variables; and using variables which have p-value ≤ 0.25 binary logistic regressions was fitted. Association presented in odds ratio with 95% confidence interval and significance determined at P-value less than 0.05. Results: The mean time of first antenatal care visit was found to be 15.9 (SD 3.7) weeks and the proportion of women who visit their first antenatal care within the recommended time (before or at 16 weeks of gestation) was 49.7%; nearly equal to late presentation. Rural residence (AOR=3.6, 95% CI (1.72, 6.62)), low monthly income (AOR=3.20, 95% CI (1.5, 6.74)), illiteracy (AOR=1.48, 95% CI (1.12, 3.04)), not being advised on timing of visit (AOR=4.64, 95% CI (2.32, 8.17) and unplanned pregnancy (AOR=5.02, 95% CI (2.21, 8.95)) were independent predictors of late presentation for first antenatal care. Conclusion: Even though, half of pregnant women started antenatal care attendance during the first trimester the finding was not satisfactory. Hence, further activities are needed through health education and promotion.