Preceding birth interval, timing and number of antenatal contacts in Africa, 2010–2020

BACKGROUND: Utilization of adequate and quality prenatal healthcare services confers critical benefits to women and their unborn children. However, utilization rates remain low in many countries in Africa. Several studies have attempted to understand the primary drivers behind these low statistics. This article contributes to this discourse by examining the associations between birth interval and timing and number/frequency of antenatal care visits in Africa. METHODS: We pooled data from the publicly available Demographic and Health Surveys conducted in the last decade (2010–2020) for 32 African countries. Data were analysed using descriptive proportions and mixed effect binary logistic regression. RESULTS: The results illustrate moderate significant associations between spacing on the most recent birth by ≥36 months and early (first trimester) first antenatal care contact in both our bivariate (odds ratio [OR] 1.18, p<0.001) and multivariate (OR 1.106, p<0.001) analyses. The benefits on optimal antenatal contacts predicted on spacing are also noticed with birth intervals of 24–35 months (OR 1.08, p<0.001) and ≥36 months (OR 1.48, p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Optimal birth spacing is beneficial for ANC utilization in terms of timing and total number of contacts. Post-partum family planning/contraceptive use can be an effective pathway to prolonging birth intervals. We argue that maternal and child health programmes strengthen prioritizing contraceptive use between births.