Correlates of Antenatal Clinic Attendance Pattern and Labour Outcomes among Nigerian Women

Background: Antenatal clinic attendance increases the opportunity for good labour outcomes. There is paucity of studies on how pattern of antenatal attendance modifies the labour outcome. This facility-based ex-post-facto study assessed the influence of pattern of antenatal attendance on labour outcomes. Method: Cross sectional study of 302 women (15 - 49 years) that delivered and are within first 24 hours postpartum in four selected hospitals in Owerri, Imo state, Nigeria. Observational checklist and structured questionnaire are instruments for data collection which was administered via interview. The maternal antenatal records were consulted for some obstetrics and gynecological data. Chi-square was used to analyze the data and level of significance was 5% (0.05). Result: Most of the participants 134 (44.4%) were within the age of 29 - 35 years with mean age of 30.00 ± 5.82. Majority of them were married 281 (93.0%), most 219 (72.5%) were multiparous and 179 (59.3%) had tertiary education while 7 (2.3%) had no formal education. Majority of the women that attended ANC visit > 5 times had the highest number of spontaneous vaginal delivery 58 (45.3%), normal birth weight 89 (47.8%), Apgar score 93 (49.7%) ≥ 7, favourable peripartum maternal condition 72 (55.4%) and postpartum neonatal conditions 99 (48.1%), while those that had less than five ANC visit especially those that had th minute Apgar score and birth weight had significant relationship with the number of ANC visit (P th minute Apgar score 133 (71.1%) and normal birth weight 124 (66.7%). Those who booked at third trimester (>28 weeks) had the highest emergency CS 48 (47.1%), maternal distress 28 (90.3%), ruptured uterus 2 (100%), post term 31 (68.9%), while those that booked at first trimester (th minute Apgar score and 82 (444.1%) women had normal birth weight babies. Percentage of RDS taken is significantly associated with the labour outcome (P th minute Apgar score, while 20 (44.4%) had LBW babies. Among 66 (21.9) women who took 70% or more of their RDS, 4 (13.35) had AVD, 1 (3.2%) had maternal distress, 0 (0.00%) had retained placenta, 0 (0.00%) had post term babies, 2 (6.7%) had still birth, 6 (14.3%) had poor 5th minute APGAR score, 16 (13.3%) had LBW babies. Conclusion: Poor antenatal health seeking behavior and non-adherence to antenatal advice are associated with some maternal and neonatal complications during labour and the postpartum period.