Socio demographics and Determinative Components affecting First Antenatal Care Visit among Pregnant Women Attending DessieReferal Hospital ANC Unit, Dessie Town, North East Ethiopia

Abstract

Introduction
Antenatal care service, which is among strategies to maintain maternal and fetal well being, is strongly recommended to be initiated early during pregnancy. Late first visit is one of the three common problems throughout sub Saharan Africa (SSA) posing difficulty in accomplishing world health organization (WHO) recommendation.
Objective
The objective of this study was to determine the proportion and associated factors of timely first ANC visit among pregnant mothers in Dessie Referral Hospital.
Methods and Materials
Institution based cross sectional study design was applied. The consecutive sampling technique was used to select 284 pregnant mothers and participants are interviewed by using structured questionnaire.
Results
It is revealed that timely ANC visit was found as 27.3%. maternal educational status and knowledge of the time for first ANC visit were statistically significant variables with the mother having first ANC visit timely at a p- value <0.05.
Conclusion
The study concluded thatutilization timely first ANC visit is affected by the maternal educational level and ANC awareness.