Abstract:
ABSTRACT
Background: The introduction of ultrasound in medicine in the 1970s was a major landmark
in the history of medicine. Over the years it has become an indispensible part of modern
antenatal care (ANC) and has gained acceptance because it is non-invasive, also safe for the
mother, fetus and sonographer. The uptake of prenatal Uss scan during the ANC can be related
with wide variety of factors include socio-demographic factors, antenatal factors and the
awareness on importance of prenatal Uss.
Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the factors related with uptake of prenatal
ultrasound scan among women delivered at Amana Regional Referral Hospital from August to
October 2018.
Methods: Hospital based cross sectional study was conducted at Amana Regional Referral
Hospital. A total of 402 women were involved in the study. The tool obtained information on
the socio demographic characteristics (i.e age, marital status, residence, educational level and
occupation), antenatal records (i.e parity, abortion /stillbirth, booking gestation age and
number of ANC visits) and ultrasound awareness and utilization. Data was analyzed using
SPSS version 23. Bivariate analysis was done among the factors and those factors with p value < 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant.
Results: The proportion of prenatal Uss done was 41.8% and most of the Uss were requested
by the health care providers while 4.2% were self requested. Moreover, only 2.5% of the
delivered women had adequate awareness of Uss. In this study it was found that factors which
were related with the uptake of prenatal Uss scan were; secondary & college education level,
woman with formal employment and women whose husband’s had formal employment. The
study also found that history of at least one abortion, history of previous pregnancy Uss, ≥ 4
visits ANC and being attended by doctor/ both during ANC visits were related with increased
uptake of Uss. Other factors related with uptake Uss includes; women delivered by C/S,
women awareness that Uss is important during pregnancy and safe for the baby and lastly the
affordable cost of the Uss scan.
Conclusion; The uptake of prenatal Uss is low among delivered women due to poor le
