Compliance with focused antenatal care services: do health workers in rural Burkina Faso, Uganda and Tanzania perform all ANC procedures?

Abstract

Abstractobjective To assess health workers' compliance with the procedures set in the focused antenatal care (ANC) guidelines in rural Uganda, Tanzania and Burkina Faso; to compare the compliance within and among the three study sites; and to appraise the logistic and supply of the respective health facilities (HF).methods The cross-sectional study was conducted in the rural HF in three African countries. This descriptive observational study took place in HF in Nouna, Burkina Faso (5), Iganga, Uganda (6) and Rufiji, Tanzania (7). In total, 788 ANC sessions and service provisions were observed, the duration of each ANC service provision was calculated, and the infrastructures of the respective HF were assessed.results Health workers in all HF performed most of the procedures but also omitted certain practices stipulated in the focused ANC guidelines. There was a substantial variation in provision of ANC services among HF within and among the country sites. The findings also revealed that the duration of first visits was <15 min and health workers spent even less time in subsequent visits in all three sites. Reagents for laboratory tests and drugs as outlined in the focus ANC guidelines were often out of stock in most facilities.conclusion Health workers in all three country sites failed to perform all procedures stipulated in the focused ANC guideline; this could not be always explained by the lack of supplies. It is crucial to point out the necessity of the core procedures of ANC repeatedly.

Exploring the focus of prenatal information offered to pregnant mothers regarding newborn care in rural Uganda

“…These findings are consistent with the findings by Conrad and others [35] whereby the different health education sessions did not take into consideration previous education topics, nor the mothers’ knowledge, leading to possible duplication and monotony of information [41]; further aggravated by the lack of individualised health education [35], also highlighted in our study.…”

Antenatal Care Strengthening in Jimma, Ethiopia: A Mixed-Method Needs Assessment

“…In Jimma, the coverage of laboratory testing during ANC was higher than the national coverage; thus, the issue of poor-quality laboratory facilities seems national. From other low-income countries, it is reported that the quality of ANC is compromised by shortages of laboratory reagents and drugs, low coverage of health education, and low compliance with the FANC guidelines and also that service varies between facilities and countries [9–12, 41, 47–50]. In the present study, we found the same challenges and thus conclude that they seem to apply generally.…”

“…Generally, guidelines for FANC have not been fully implemented in low-income settings [8], and the quality of ANC is often low [9–12]. The ANC is increasingly focused on and acknowledged for providing health education, instructions on danger signs during pregnancy, and birth preparedness, as this is considered to be lifesaving and to reduce delay in seeking help [8].…”

Reported Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Antenatal Care Services among Women in Dodoma Municipal, Tanzania

“…At the time of this study, ANC service visit were only 60% in the country and few delivery at the health centre and hospital left the other with home delivery end up by delivery complications, as part of the Tanzania government strategies to promote the important of ANC visit is needed in order to overcome with this burden [21]. This could partly explain the high level of unawareness the important of ANC services.…”