DESCRIBE ANTENATAL CARE COMPLIANCE TO IMPROVE SERVICE QUALITY FOR PREGNANT WOMEN IN NUSA TENGGARA TIMUR

Abstract

Compliance with antenatal care (ANC) visits for pregnant women is influenced by the quality of services.  The level of compliance with antenatal care visits in Nusa Tenggara Timur Province (NTT) still varies. Therefore, this study is aimed at finding out the overview of the level of ANC compliance in pregnant women in NTT. A cross-sectional study was conducted using secondary data from the 2017 Indonesia Health Demographic Survey (IHDS). A total of 790 women of childbearing age (WCA) who had been pregnant and gave birth within five years before the survey in NTT were selected by the stratified sampling method. The extracted data were data on ANC service utilization, age, education, area of residence, parity, employment status, marital status, pregnancy status, health insurance ownership, wealth quintile, ownership of means of transportation, husband support, media exposure knowledge, and pregnancy complications. ANC utilization is measured based on adherence to ANC visits at least 4 times during pregnancy. The research data was analyzed univariate and bivariate. The proportion of antenatal care compliance during pregnancy by WUS was 74.7%.  As many as 84% of WUS performed ANC in the 2nd and 3rd trimesters, the least received type of laboratory examination was 53.8%. Women of childbearing who adhered to implementing ANC during pregnancy were found in pregnant women with a higher education level (80.2%), parity of 2-3 children (81.1%), and the support of their husbands (78.7%). This study provides an overview of the importance of maintaining the quality of ANC services to increase the coverage of ANC visits for pregnant women. It is therefore recommended to provide information about the importance of ANC visits and to carry out essential laboratory examinations for pregnant women.