Uptake of prenatal ultrasound among women who delivered at Amana Regional Referral Hospital.

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